'-Lt?' 


/ 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2008  with  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/episcopalpalacesOOrait 


ENGLISH     EPISCOPAL    PALACES 


Sir  Thomas  More. 

From  the  poytrnit  hy  Holl'cin  in  tlic  possession  of  Kdivarii  llutli,  Esq. 


ENGLISH 
EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

(PROVINCE     OF     CANTERBURY) 


CONTRIBUTED    BY 

CAROLINE  C.  MOREWOOD,  VALENTINA 
HAWTREY,  LILIAN  J.  REDSTONE, 
HENRIETTA  L.  E.  GARBETT.  CHARLOTTE 
M.    CALTHROP,    EVELINE    M.    WOODCOCK 

EDITED    BY 

R.    S.    RAIT 


NEW    YORK 
JAMES   POTT   &    COMPANY 

1910 


^Wox'b  Qtoie 


GREAT  books  have  a  way  of  producing  smaller 
ones;  and  these  sketches  of  the  history  of  the 
Episcopal  Palaces  of  the  Southern  Province 
have  been  inspired  by  work  done  for  the 
"Victoria  History  of  the  Counties  of  England."  The  plan 
and  the  scope  of  that  great  work  prevents  its  writers  from 
availing  themselves  of  much  of  the  interesting  material 
which  their  researches  discover.  The  authors  of  this  book 
have  taken  the  opportunity  of  presenting  in  popular  form 
the  results  of  investigation  into  the  lighter  side  of  history. 
The  editor  is  responsible  for  the  general  plan  of  the 
book,  but  he  has  left  his  contributors  to  choose  their  own 
methods  of  telling  the  stories  entrusted  to  them.  He 
hopes  and  believes  that  the  result  has  been  to  produce  a 
volume  of  varied  interest  which  will  appeal  to  all  who 
wish  to  know  about  the  life  of  the  Church  and  its  great 
dignitaries,  and  about  the  houses  in  which  its  bishops 
have  lived.  The  editor  and  his  contributors  wish  to  offer 
their  thanks  to  the  guardians  of  episcopal  palaces  and  docu- 
ments for  access  to  both,  and  to  express  their  indebtedness 
to  Mr.  William  Page,  editor  of  the  Victoria  County 
History. 

R.  S.  R. 
New  College,  Oxford. 

November,   1909. 


'  LIBRAR7 


Conitnts 


INTRODUCTORY  CHAPTER.  Caroline  C.  Morewood    .  i 

THE  PALACE  OF  LAMBETH.  Valcntina  Hawtrey          .  51 

THE  PALACE  OF  FULHAM.  Valentina  Hawtrey         .  90 

FARNHAM  CASTLE.  Lilian  J.  Redstone  .        .  123 

THE  OLD  PALACE  OF  LINCOLN.  Henrietta  L.  E.  Garbett  155 

THE  PALACE  OF  NORWICH.  Charlotte  M.  Calthrop    .  209 

THE  PALACE  OF  HEREFORD.  Henrietta  L.  E.  Garbett  255 

THE  PALACE  OF  WELLS.  Eveline  M.  Woodcock    .  287 

INDEX 327 


Bi0^  of  Jtfmivatione 


SIR    THOMAS    MORE  .  ... 

HENRY   CHICHELE,    ARCHBISHOP    OF    CANTERBURY 
WILLIAM    WARHAM,   ARCHBISHOP   OF    CANTERBURY 
RICHARD    BANCROFT,    ARCHBISHOP    OF    CANTERBURY 
EDMUND    BONNER,    BISHOP    OF    LONDON     . 
WILLIAM    JUXON,    ARCHBISHOP    OF    CANTERBURY 
BEILBY    PORTEUS,    BISHOP    OF    LONDON      . 
WILLIAM    OF   WYKEHAM,    BISHOP    OF    WINCHESTER 
JOHN    WILLIAMS,    ARCHBISHOP    OF    YORK    . 
SIR   THOMAS    GOOCH,    BISHOP    OF    ELY 
DR.    BATHURST,    BISHOP    OF    NORWICH 
EDWARD    STANLEY,    BISHOP    OF    NORWICH 
PHILIP    BISSE,    BISHOP    OF    HEREFORD 
ARTHUR    LAKE,    BISHOP    OF    BATH    AND    WELLS 
THOMAS    KEN,    BISHOP    OF    BATH    AND    WELLS     . 


Frontispiece 

Facing 

P-      58 

)i 

62 

?! 

78 

•                         J> 

98 

•                          >> 

114 

•                        J5 

120 

•                        J) 

134 

)5 

190 

J? 

248 

•                          )) 

250 

•                          >) 

252 

•                          )> 

284 

•                         >l 

314 

•                          J> 

320 

E.E.P. 


^tiivot>uctoti^  C^apttv 


IN  a  work  of  this  kind  it  would  be  obviously  impossible 
to  present  a  complete  account  of  all  the  episcopal 
palaces  in  the  Province  of  Canterbury,  and  in  an 
Introductory  Chapter  we  propose  to  offer  a  brief 
sketch  of  the  residences,  whose  history  is  not  related 
elsewhere  in  the  present  volume.  The  history  of  these 
buildings  is  necessarily  bound  up  with  those  who  built  and 
inhabited  them.  The  architects  have  left  the  stamp  of  their 
personalities  on  the  stones,  which  are  in  many  cases  the  only 
trace  we  have  of  these  characters  of  the  past.  Their  public 
acts  had  the  world  for  an  audience,  but  the  real  men  with 
their  motives  and  ambitions  are  but  shadowy  phantoms  too 
often  shrouded  in  the  mists  of  religious  controversy.  One 
wishes  there  were  more  of  these  traces,  but  unfortunately 
many  of  the  palaces  shared  the  fate  of  other  Church 
property  during  the  Civil  Wars,  and  were  swept  away  in  the 
storms  of  fanatical  zeal. 

More  than  half  the  bishoprics  in  England  are  of  Saxon 
foundation,  and  there  is  little  or  no  record  of  the  bishops' 
houses ;  but  we  can  easily  picture  the  simple  wooden 
structures  which  would  supply  all  the  needs  of  these  saintly 
fathers  of  the  Church.  Their  ambitions  were  for  spiritual 
riches,  and  they  had  little  esteem  for  the  perishable  goods  of 
this  world,  the  care  of  which  would  only  distract  them  from 
the  work  of  their  Master. 

E.E.P.  B 


2  ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

As  time  went  on,  bringing  increased  wealth  and  power, 
the  episcopal  residences  naturally  underwent  great  changes. 
It  was  necessary  for  the  bishop-baron  to  have  a  castle  large 
enough  to  accommodate  his  armed  retainers,  and  strong 
enough  to  withstand  the  attacks  of  hostile  neighbours. 

Then  again  his  position  as  dispenser  of  justice  neces- 
sitated a  large  hall  in  which  cases  could  be  tried,  as  well 
as  a  prison  where  the  guilty  paid  the  penalty  for  their 
misdoings. 

The  position  of  the  bishops  in  the  Great  Council,  and 
afterwards  in  Parliament,  and  the  prominent  part  they 
often  played  in  State  affairs  rendered  it  necessary  to  provide 
them  with  London  houses,  as  well  as  various  manors  en 
route  where  they  could  break  their  journey.  Travelling  was 
no  easy  matter  in  those  days,  and  we  are  told  that  the 
Bishop  of  Worcester  spent  five  da3's  on  the  journey  from 
London  to  the  seat  of  his  diocese. 

Very  little  material  change  was  effected  in  the  arrange- 
ment of  the  bishoprics  until  the  Reformation,  when 
Henry  VIII.,  whose  conscience,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  was 
sometimes  disturbed  at  the  destruction  of  so  many 
religious  houses,  wished  to  make  amends  by  endowing  new 
bishoprics  out  of  the  revenues  of  the  dissolved  monasteries. 

In  the  Province  of  Canterbury  he  raised  to  the  dignity  of 
bishoprics,  Gloucester,  Bristol,  Westminster  (afterwards 
suppressed  by  Edward  VI.),  Peterborough,  and  Oxford.  In 
each  of  these  cases,  the  abbot  who  had  surrendered  his  house 
to  the  king,  was  installed  as  bishop — his  house,  of  course, 
becoming  the  episcopal  palace. 

From  this  time  onward,  the  various  sees  have  retained 
their  former  dimensions,  until  the  enormous  increase  in  the 
population  of  recent  years  necessitated  the  formation  of  new 


INTRODUCTORY   CHAPTER 


dioceses.  In  1836  the  sees  of  Gloucester  and  Bristol  were 
united,  although  once  more  separated  in  1897.  Five  new 
bishoprics  have  been  formed  since  1877,  namely,  St.  Albans, 
Truro,  Southwell,  Birmingham,  and  Southwark. 

We  find  therefore  that  bishoprics  and  episcopal  residences 
fall  naturally  into  four  groups :  (i.)  those  of  Saxon  founda- 
tion ;  (ii.)  those  of  Norman  origin  ;  (iii.)  those  founded 
by  Henry  VIII. ;  and  (iv.)  those  formed  within  the  last 
fifty  years.     We  proceed  to  deal  with  each  in  turn. 

Canterbury 

On  the  west  side  of  the  cloisters  of  Canterbury  Cathedral 
may  still  be  seen  an  old  gate-house,  all  that  now  remains  of 
the  archbishop's  palace ;  close  to  this  gate-house  is  an  arched 
entrance,  through  which  Thomas  Becket  had  just  passed 
when  he  was  attacked  by  his  murderers.  In  a  garden  near 
are  remains  of  pillars  and  arches,  probably  once  forming  part 
of  the  great  hall,  so  often  mentioned  in  history.  It  was  begun 
by  Archbishop  Hubert,  about  1200,  and  finished  by  Langton. 
It  was  the  scene  of  many  a  noble  feast :  notably  at  the  time 
of  the  translation  of  the  body  of  St.  Thomas  of  Canterbury, 
when  crowds  of  devoted  pilgrims  were  entertained  by  the 
Archbishop.  The  expense  of  this  feast,  as  well  as  the  building 
of  the  hall,  laid  a  heavy  debt  on  the  see,  which  was  not 
cleared  till  Archbishop  Boniface's  time.  He  is  said  to  have 
sorrowfully  remarked  :  "  My  predecessors  built  this  hall  at 
great  expense  ;  they  did  well  indeed,  but  they  laid  out  no 
money  except  what  they  borrowed ;  /  seem  to  be  the 
builder,  because  I  pay  their  debts." 

In  this  hall  Edward  I.,  after  his  marriage  in  the  cathedral 
with  Catherine  in  1299,  kept  the  nuptial  feast.  Two 
hundred  years  later  Archbishop  Warham    entertained    the 

B    2 


4  ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL   PALACES 

Emperor  Charles  V.,  and  his  mother,  Queen  of  Aragon,  as 
well  as  Henry  VIII.  It  evidently  shared  the  fate  of  so 
much  Church  property  at  the  time  of  the  Dissolution,  but 
was  rebuilt  by  Archbishop  Parker  in  1572,  who  was 
honoured  by  a  visit  from  Queen  Elizabeth  in  1575.  Its 
magnificence  was  doomed,  and  fell  a  victim  to  the  ruthless 
fanaticism  of  Cromwell's  followers.  The  arms  of  Arch- 
bishop Parker  and  the  date  1572  may  still  be  seen  engraved 
on  chimney-pieces  and  windows  in  neighbouring  houses. 
The  site  has  since  been  leased  out,  and  turned  into  tene- 
ments. The  centre  once  formed  a  bowling-green,  and 
afterwards  a  timber-yard. 

Although  the  palaces  of  Canterbury  and  Lambeth  were 
their  state  abodes,  the  archbishops  had  many  other  palaces 
and  manors.  Of  these  the  best  known  are,  perhaps, 
Mayfield,  Croydon,  Addington  and  Otford.  Mayfield 
belonged  to  the  archbishops  from  the  earliest  times,  and 
the  first  house  is  said  to  have  been  built  by  St.  Dunstan. 
It  was  certainly  a  favourite  place  of  residence  with 
succeeding  archbishops,  who  loved  to  retire  there  and 
rest  from  the  laborious  duties  of  their  state.  It  was  finally 
alienated  by  Cranmer  in  1535,  and  has  since  fallen  into 
decay. 

Of  all  the  archiepiscopal  palaces,  none  is  so  well  known  as 
the  beautiful  palace  at  Croydon.  This  manor  had  belonged 
to  the  archbishops  since  the  days  of  Lanfranc,  and  though 
it  is  uncertain  when  a  house  was  first  erected,  we  know  one 
existed  in  1273,  in  the  time  of  Archbishop  Kilwardy,  who 
dates  several  mandates  from  Croydon.  The  five  succeeding 
archbishops  also  spent  much  of  their  time  in  this  palace,  and 
added  considerably  to  its  size  and  beauty. 

Archbishop  Courtney  received  the  pall  in  the  great  hall  in 


INTRODUCTORY   CHAPTER 


1382,  and  either  he  or  his  successor,  Arundell,  built  the 
guard-chamber.  The  whole  palace  was  repaired  by  Arch- 
bishop Stafford,  who  made  Lambeth  and  Croydon  his  chief 
places  of  residence.  Cranmer,  too,  was  very  fond  of  the 
place,  and  many  bishops  were  consecrated  by  him  in  the 
adjoining  chapel.  So  beautiful  and  complete  was  this 
residence  that  Queen  Elizabeth  visited  it  more  than  once, 
and  on  one  occasion  remained  there  for  seven  days. 

The  palace  was  still  more  improved  by  Archbishop  Laud, 
at  whose  death  it  was  sold  to  Sir  "William  Brereton.  He 
had  little  appreciation  for  its  stately  beauty,  and  converted 
the  chapel  into  a  kitchen. 

At  the  Restoration  it  came  into  the  hands  of  Archbishop 
Juxon,  who  did  much  towards  restoring  it  to  its  former 
splendour.  Archbishop  Wake  (1715)  made  it  a  summer 
residence,  and  rebuilt  the  great  gallery  leading  to  the 
garden.  Dr.  Herring  also  completely  repaired  and  furnished 
the  palace  in  1747,  and  was  the  last  primate  who  lived  there. 
Soon  afterwards  it  was  allowed  to  become  very  dilapidated, 
and  an  Act  of  Parliament  was  passed  for  its  sale.  It  has 
now  been  converted  into  a  girls'  school. 

When  Croydon  was  no  longer  available  as  a  summer 
residence,  the  Archbishop  Manners-Sutton  bought  Adding- 
ton  in  1808.  It  was  considerably  improved  by  Dr.  Howley, 
who  added  a  chapel  and  library.  It  has,  however,  since 
been  disposed  of. 

Otford  was  also  a  very  favourite  abode  of  the  arcbishops, 
several  mandates  and  letters  being  dated  there.  Here  they 
enjoyed  the  seclusion  of  two  large  parks,  and  had  the  right 
of  free-warren.  Thomas  Becket  appears  to  have  been 
the  first  to  live  here,  and  finding  the  supply  of  water 
insufficient,  he  is  said  to  have  struck  the  ground  with  his 


6  ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL   PALACES 

staff,  and  the  spring  of  water  which  gushed  up,  still  bears 
the  name  of  St.  Thomas's  Well.  Here  also  Archbishop 
Winchelsea  died  in  1313.  A  great  part  of  this  mansion  was 
rebuilt  by  Archbishop  Deane  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII. 
But  Warham,  his  successor,  had  ideals  of  episcopal  dignity 
which  it  did  not  satisfy  ;  he  therefore  demolished  the  whole 
structure  except  the  chapel  and  hall,  building  a  veritable  palace 
at  a  cost  of  £"33,000.  Archbishop  Cranmer,  who  succeeded 
Warham,  appears  to  have  felt  that  this  magnificent  property 
was  an  over-weighty  burden,  and  that  his  head  would  rest 
more  securely  in  a  humbler  dwelling  ;  accordingly  he  passed 
it  over  to  Henry  VIII.  It  remained  Crown  property  until 
James  I.  granted  the  site,  together  with  the  greater  park  of 
seven  hundred  acres,  to  Sir  Thomas  Smith.  A  vast  heap  of 
rubbish  is  all  that  now  remains  of  this  palace,  but  part  of  the 
wall  and  two  towers  of  the  outer  court  still  give  some  slight 
idea  of  its  former  magnificence. 

Rochester 

The  see  of  Rochester  is  the  smallest  in  the  kingdom 
although  one  of  the  earliest  foundation.  There  is  no 
mention  of  any  episcopal  house  till  the  time  of  the  saintly 
Gundulph.  He  was  a  monk  in  the  Benedictine  monastery  at 
Bee  in  Normandy,  and  was  elected  bishop  in  1077  through 
Lanfranc's  influence.  He  turned  the  secular  priests  out  of 
their  monastery  at  Rochester,  and  filled  it  with  Benedictines. 
He  probably  built  a  house  for  himself  at  the  same  time  that 
he  rebuilt  the  church  and  added  to  the  priory.  He  appears 
always  to  have  loved  his  Benedictine  home,  and  when  Arch- 
bishop Lanfranc  restored  to  the  see  many  manors  and  lands 
formerly  confiscated,  Gundulph  granted  most  of  them  to 
the  priory,  greatly  impoverishing  the  see ;    and  succeeding 


INTRODUCTORY   CHAPTER 


bishops  were   constantly    disputing   with    the    monks  their 
right  to  certain  lands. 

Gundulph  was,  at  heart,  always  more  of  a  Benedictine 
than  a  bishop,  and  when  he  felt  his  end  drawing  near,  he 
would  not  die  as  a  bishop  in  his  palace,  but  as  a  monk 
amongst  monks,  in  a  lower  place.  So  his  servants  carried 
him  into  the  Church  of  St.  Andrew,  where  he  prayed  long 
and  earnestly  for  himself  and  his  beloved  monastery,  and 
when  his  strength  was  exhausted,  they  took  him  into  the 
monks'  infirmary,  where  he  died  amongst  his  spiritual 
children  in  1107.  The  church  begun  by  him  was  finished 
in  the  time  of  Bishop  John,  about  1130.  The  dedication 
was  attended  b}'  the  king  and  many  nobles  and  clergy, 
who  no  doubt  were  entertained  at  the  bishop's  palace. 
While  the  feasting  was  still  in  progress,  fire  broke  out, 
almost  destroying  the  city,  and  doing  considerable  damage 
to  the  church.  The  priory  also  was  reduced  to  such  a 
state  that  the  monks  were  obliged  to  disperse  until  the 
damage  was  repaired.  That  the  bishop's  house  shared 
the  same  fate  seems  probable,  for  we  are  told  that  Gilbert 
de  Glanville,  who  was  consecrated  in  1185,  rebuilt  the 
palace  at  Rochester,  as  well  as  a  house  at  Lambeth.  The 
dispute,  which  had  long  been  smouldering  between  the 
bishop  and  the  monks,  was  fanned  into  a  blaze  by  this 
tyrannical  prelate,  who  threw  himself  heart  and  soul  into 
the  contest.  He  succeeded  in  regaining  most  of  the 
possessions  which  Gundulph  had  alienated,  but  not  without 
a  struggle  on  the  part  of  the  monks  who  were  reduced  to 
the  extreme  necessity  of  melting  down  and  coining  the 
silver  shrine  of  St.  Paulinus.  Having  got  what  he  wanted 
he  appears  to  have  been  willing  to  make  some  reparation, 
and  built  a  new  cloister  for  the  monks,  providing  them  also 


8  ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL   PALACES 

with  an  organ,  and  various  ornaments  and  books.  He 
died  in  1214,  and  earned  the  epithet  of  a  "confounder 
amongst  founders." 

The   next  bishop   who  turned  his   attention   to  building 
was   Hamo  de   Hethe,   Prior  of  Rochester.     The  see  had 
been    vacant    for    two    years,    owing    to    a    dispute    about 
the    election ;    however,    the    Pope's    consent    was    at    last 
obtained,  and   Hamo  went   to   Avignon   to  be  consecrated 
in  1319.     He  had  many  difficulties  to  contend  with  during 
the  first  years  of  his  episcopate,  not  only  the  heavy  expenses 
incurred  by  the  suit  and  journey,  but  his  palace  and  other 
manor  houses  were  practically  uninhabitable,  and  had  been 
despoiled  of  their  live  stock    and  agricultural  implements, 
and  even  of  the  furniture.     Accordingly  he  retired  to  some 
secluded  spot,  his  wants  being  supplied  by  his  clergy,  who 
voluntarily  gave    up   a  small  portion  of   their  stipends  to 
support  their  bishop.     As  soon  as  his  debts  were  paid  he  set 
to  work  to  rebuild  his  palace  and  manor  houses.     At  Hailing 
he  rebuilt    the  hall,  and  improved  the  chapel  and  dining- 
room  ;  he  spent  the  Lent  of  1322  in  this  house,  and  passed 
on  to  Trottescliffe,  where  he  celebrated  Easter.     The  latter 
had  belonged  to  the  bishopric  since  the  days  of  King  Offa,  and 
though  it  was  wrested  from  them  during  the  Danish  wars,  was 
restored  by  Lanfranc  to  Gundulph,  who  kept  it  mainly  to 
supply  his  table  with  poultry,  eggs,  and  other  farm  produce. 
Hamo  de    Hethe  spent  a  year  at  Trottescliffe  with  the 
object,  apparently,  of  superintending  the  building  operations. 
He  added  a  dining-room  for  himself  and  one  for  his  clerks, 
as   well   as    a   large    kitchen,    bake-house,  and  cow-house, 
surrounding  the  whole  with  walls.     This  palace  remained  in 
the  hands  of  the  bishops  of  Rochester  till  the  Reformation, 
when  it  was  leased  out  to  various  tenants. 


INTRODUCTORY   CHAPTER 


It  was  during  Hamo  de  Hethe's  episcopate  that  England 
was  visited  by  the  plague ;  it  was  particularly  violent  in 
Kent,  and  the  bishop  lost  most  of  his  chaplains  and 
domestics.  The  parish  priests  in  his  diocese  fell  victims  to 
this  frightful  scourge,  their  places  often  being  filled  by 
illiterate  men,  hurriedly  ordained,  with  but  a  superficial 
knowledge  of  the  Faith  they  professed  to  teach.  The  bishop 
endeared  himself  still  more  to  his  people  by  his  devotion 
during  this  sad  time.  He  went  amongst  the  stricken  people, 
helping  the  dying  and  burying  the  dead,  and  doing  all  in  his 
power  to  relieve  the  suffering. 

Worn  out  with  his  labours,  towards  the  end  of  his  life,  he 
begged  the  Pope  to  relieve  him  of  his  episcopal  duties.  This 
request  was  evidently  not  granted,  for  he  died  at  his  palace 
three  years  afterwards,  in  1352. 

During  the  next  hundred  years  there  is  little  mention 
of  the  palace,  until  the  time  of  Bishop  Lowe,  who  evidently 
rebuilt  it,  as  one  of  his  letters  is  dated  from  the  new  palace 
of  Rochester  in  1459.  The  next  six  bishops  were  all  trans- 
lated to  other  sees,  and  the  palace  was  much  neglected 
when  John  Fisher  inhabited  it.  Erasmus  of  Rotterdam 
paid  him  a  visit  in  1524,  and  complains  of  the  bishop's 
disregard  to  his  health.  He  adds  that  the  walls  of  the 
library  were  so  thin  that  the  air  came  in  through  the  crevices, 
that  it  was  neither  wainscotted  nor  floored  with  wood,  and 
had  only  a  brick  pavement.  The  money  he  grudged  spend- 
ing on  his  own  personal  comforts  he  gave  liberally  to 
St.  John's  College,  which  he  furnished  with  a  magnificent 
library.  He  was  far  beyond  his  age  in  learning,  and  the 
sanctity  of  his  life  has  gained  for  him  the  respect  and 
admiration  of  all.  He  warmly  opposed  the  divorce  of 
Katherine  of  Aragon,  and  was  eventually  sent  to  the   Tower 


10        ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

with  Sir  Thomas  More.  The  Pope  rewarded  his  fidelity  by 
raising  him  to  the  dignity  of  a  cardinal,  which  probably 
hastened  his  end.  He  was  beheaded  when  nearly  eighty 
years  old,  and  his  head  set  on  London  Bridge.  He  could 
never  be  induced  to  change  his  bishopric  for  a  better  one, 
and  often  said  that  his  church  was  his  wife,  and  he  would 
never  part  with  her  because  she  was  poor.  He  was  the  last 
to  live  at  the  Rochester  Palace,  which  was  let  for  a  term  of 
years,  and  so  neglected  that  at  the  time  of  the  Common- 
wealth survey  it  was  valued  at  £12  13s.  4^. 

The  succeeding  bishops  lived  at  Bromley,  which  had  been  in 
the  possession  of  the  see  since  the  eighth  century.  This  old 
palace  was  probably  built  about  iioo,  and  has  undergone 
many  alterations.  During  the  Commonwealth  it  was  granted 
away  from  the  see,  but  restored  by  Charles  II.  in  1660  in  a  very 
dilapidated  condition.  It  was  renovated  by  Bishop  Sprat  in 
1669,  and  again  by  his  successor,  Bishop  Atterbury.  The 
entire  palace  was  rebuilt  in  1775  by  Bishop  Thomas,  a  fact 
recorded  on  a  stone  above  the  entrance  door  bearing  an 
inscription  under  the  arms  of  the  see  of  Rochester. 

A  fine  avenue  of  lime-trees  led  up  to  the  house,  which 
stood  on  a  slope  in  a  small  park  near  the  road,  and  was 
built  in  the  heavy  substantial  style  typical  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  when  solid  comfort  was  more  considered  than  beauty 
in  form  and  proportion.  The  square  entrance-hall  gives  a 
noble  stamp  to  the  house,  and  the  eye  lingers  willingly  on 
the  dark  oak  staircase  leading  to  the  upper  apartments.  On 
the  left  of  the  entrance-door  is  the  chapel,  which  was  con- 
secrated in  1701.  In  the  grounds  is  an  old  chalybeate  well 
dedicated  to  St.  Blaise,  the  patron  saint  of  woolcombers. 
It  was  much  frequented  by  pious  pilgrims,  especially  at 
Whitsuntide,  and  near  it  once  stood  a  little  chapel  or  oratory. 


INTRODUCTORY   CHAPTER  n 

The  manor  passed  into  the  hands  of  the  Ecclesiastical 
Commissioners  when  the  see  was  rearranged  and  the  bishops 
moved  to  Danbury,  near  Chelmsford.  The  present  episcopal 
palace  is  called  Bishop's  Court,  near  Sevenoaks.  It  is 
comparatively  modern,  and  has  a  beautiful  garden. 

Lichfield 

The  bishopric  of  Lichfield  was  established  by  Oswy,  King 
of  Mercia,  about  665.  It  was  originally  united  with  Coventry, 
and  at  King  Offa's  request  was  raised  by  Pope  Adrian  to  the 
dignity  of  an  archbishopric.  After  the  death  of  King  Offa, 
however,  it  was  again  reduced  to  a  bishopric. 

There  seems  to  be  little  record  of  a  palace  before  the  days 
of  Walter  de  Langton,  who  was  consecrated  in  1295.  He 
was  a  great  favourite  of  Edward  I.,  and  often  sent  by  him 
on  important  affairs  of  State,  and  continued  High  Treasurer 
after  being  raised  to  the  episcopate. 

After  the  death  of  his  royal  master  in  Scotland,  Langton 
was  ordered  by  the  new  king,  Edward  II.,  to  bring  his 
father's  body  up  to  London  for  burial.  This  was,  no  doubt, 
a  ruse  on  the  part  of  the  king,  in  order  to  get  Langton 
into  his  power,  for  Edward  had  never  forgotten  a 
certain  severe  correction  he  had  received  from  the  bishop 
when  caught  in  the  ruthless  destruction  of  his  lordship's 
deer.  Langton  was  imprisoned  in  the  Tower,  chiefly  at  the 
instigation  of  Piers  Gaveston,  then  in  high  favour  with  the 
king. 

During  this  unjust  imprisonment  all  the  bishop's  posses- 
sions were  confiscated,  the  palace,  no  doubt,  amongst  them. 
It  was  chiefly  owing  to  the  loyal  support  of  his  clergy  that 
he  was  finally  released  and  allowed  to  return  to  his  diocese. 
He  greatly  improved    the   condition   of   the  cathedral    and 


12        ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

town,  and,  having  given  up  his  old  mansion  to  his  clergy, 
set  to  work  to  build  a  new  palace  in  the  north-east  corner 
of  the  close.  According  to  a  plan  now  in  the  Bodleian 
Library,  this  must  have  been  an  extensive  building,  occupy- 
ing 250  feet,  and  having  two  towers ;  the  ruins  of  one  of 
which  may  still  be  seen.  The  bishop's  lodging-room 
was  40  feet  by  32  feet,  with  a  leaden  roof  and  a  cellar  under- 
neath ;  it  contained  an  enormous  chimney-piece,  opposite 
which  was  a  door  leading  to  the  dining-hall.  This  hall  he 
had  decorated  with  paintings  of  Edward  I.'s  marriage, 
coronation,  wars,  and  funeral,  which,  though  much  faded, 
still  existed  till  the  Civil  Wars,  The  episcopal  establishment 
included  a  large  brew-house  and  kitchen,  and  extensive  stables. 
A  pleasing  instance  of  Christian  charity  is  recorded  of  this 
bishop,  which  deserves  notice.  When  all  the  nobles  and 
clergy  rose  up  against  Piers  Gaveston,  the  bishop,  to  whom 
he  had  formerly  done  so  much  injury,  refused  to  join  in  the 
general  condemnation  of  him.  For  this,  Langton  was  ex- 
communicated by  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  but  absolved 
by  the  Pope.  This  palace  was  the  scene  of  many  a  banquet. 
On  Christmas  Day,  1397,  Richard  II.  entertained  so  many 
guests  that  a  room  had  to  be  specially  built  between  the  hall 
and  the  kitchen.  It  is  said  that  200  tuns  of  wine  and  2,000 
oxen  were  consumed  on  this  occasion.  The  following  year, 
on  the  installation  of  Bishop  Burghill,  the  king  once  more 
gave  a  feast  to  the  nobles  and  clergy. 

By  the  fifteenth  century  the  possessions  of  this  see  had  so 
increased  that  the  Pope  issued  a  decree  that  the  palaces  of 
Coventry  and  Lichfield,  the  castle  and  manors  of  Eccleshall, 
Haywood,  Beaudesert,  and  the  mansion  in  the  Strand  were 
sufficient  for  the  bishops,  and  that  they  should  not  be  obliged 
to  repair  any  others.    The  palace  in  the  Strand  was  afterwards 


INTRODUCTORY   CHAPTER  13 

granted  by  Henry  VIII.  to  Edward,  Earl  of  Hertford 
(and  afterwards  Duke  of  Somerset),  and  shared  the  same 
fate  as  that  belono^ing  to  the  Bishop  of  Worcester,  being 
cleared  away  to  make  room  for  Somerset  House.  All  the 
chief  manors  were  alienated  by  Bishop  Sampson,  during  the 
reign  of  Henry  VIII.,  and  were  granted  to  Sir  William  Paget. 
When  Lichfield  was  besieged  by  the  Parliamentarians  during 
the  Civil  War,  the  cathedral  close  was  held  by  the  Loyalists, 
when  the  rest  of  the  town  was  occupied  by  Cromwell's  men, 
with  Lord  Brooke  at  their  head.  He  was  well  known  as 
an  inveterate  enemy  to  episcopacy,  and  when  marching  on 
Lichfield  asked  for  a  sign  of  divine  approval,  praying  to  be 
cut  off  if  his  cause  were  not  just.  This  request  was  quickly 
answered  by  a  bullet  fired  from  the  cathedral  towers,  bringing 
him  instant  death.  It  happened  on  the  feast  of  St.  Chad, 
the  patron  saint  of  Lichfield,  and  brought  renewed  hope  to 
the  hearts  of  the  Royalists.  However,  their  provisions  ran 
short,  and  surrender  was  inevitable. 

The  cathedral  close  became  a  prey  to  the  ruthless  rabble, 
whose  destructive  passions  ran  riot  amongst  these  sacred 
buildings.  The  cathedral  itself  was  the  scene  of  the  vilest 
sacrilege  and  profanation,  and  the  episcopal  palace  with  all 
its  treasures  was  reduced  to  a  heap  of  ruins.  In  this  con- 
dition it  remained  till  Bishop  John  Hacket  was  raised  to 
the  see.  His  first  care  was  the  restoration  of  the  cathedral, 
to  which  he  apphed  himself  with  such  vigour  that  in  eight 
years  it  was  restored  to  its  former  beauty.  He  also  laid  out 
£1,000  on  his  palace,  where  on  Christmas  Eve  he  entertained 
all  the  clergy  and  nobles  who  had  come  to  the  consecration 
of  the  church.  Succeeding  bishops  appear  to  have  had  little 
affection  for  the  place,  which  for  many  years  was  leased  to 
tenants,  during  which  time  Eccleshall  became  the  episcopal 


14        ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

residence.  Here  they  lived  in  great  state,  and  it  is  said  that 
Bishop  Frederic  CornwalHs  turned  out  in  a  coach-and-four 
to  attend  the  church,  though  only  a  few  yards  from  his  door. 
After  Bishop  Lonsdale's  death  in  1687  Eccleshall  was  sold, 
and  the  bishops  again  took  up  their  abode  at  Lichfield. 

The  present  palace  was  built  by  Bishop  Wood  in  1687  in 
what  was  formerly  the  garden  of  Langton's  palace.  The 
walk  in  front  is  full  of  interest  :  over  the  beautiful  valley, 
can  be  seen  the  willow  made  famous  by  Johnson,  and  the 
spot  where  Lord  Brooke  received  so  prompt  an  answer  to 
his  prayer. 

Opposite  the  palace,  and  behind  the  chapter-house,  is  an 
enclosed  spot  called  Mint  Yard :  probably  where  the  bishop's 
mint  once  stood,  for  the  privilege  of  coining  was  granted  to  the 
bishops  by  King  Stephen,  and  coins  bearing  the  Lichfield  mint 
mark  were  discovered  not  long  ago  at  Ashby-de-la-Zouch. 

Worcester 

Hartlebury  has  from  the  earliest  times  been  the  principal 
seat  of  the  bishops  of  Worcester.  The  manor  was  granted 
to  them  by  Burthred,  King  of  Mercia,  in  850.  The  earliest 
mention,  however,  of  a  castle  is  during  the  episcopate  of 
Walter  de  Cantilupe,  who  began  building  one  for  himself 
and  his  successors  in  1257.  He  did  not  hve  to  complete 
the  work,  which  was  carried  on  and  finished  by  Godfrey 
Giffard.  In  1267 — 8,  Henry  III.  granted  him  leave  to 
"  build,  fortify,  embattle,  and  with  lime  and  stone  to  finish 
his  castle  at  Hartlebury,"  adding  a  little  later  the  right 
of  free- warren.  A  beautiful  chapel  was  soon  built,  and 
the  whole  surrounded  by  a  moat.  Towards  the  close  of  the 
reign  of  Henry  VI.,  Bishop  John  Carpenter  added  a  gate- 
house. 


INTRODUCTORY   CHAPTER  15 


Owing  no  doubt  to  its  position  and  strength  it  was  chosen 
by  the  king's  forces  during  the  civil  wars  as  a  convenient 
stronghold,  and  was  garrisoned  by  Lord  Windsor  and 
Colonel  Sandys.  It  was  attacked  by  the  Parliamentary 
forces,  capitulated  after  two  days,  and  was  left  a  heap  of 
ruins,  with  the  exception  of  the  keep.  The  castle  was 
rebuilt  in  the  reign  of  Charles  II.,  and  was  greatly  improved 
by  Bishop  Hurd,  who  added  the  present  fine  library, 
bequeathing  at  his  death  a  valuable  collection  of  books. 
Unfortunately  these  improvements  necessitated  the  removal 
of  the  old  keep,  thus  leaving  nothing  of  the  original  building. 
The  castle  as  it  stands  at  present  is  approached  through  an 
avenue  of  fine  hme-trees,  planted  by  Bishop  Stillingfieet. 
Part  of  the  old  moat  still  remains.  The  castle  is  built 
round  a  quadrangular  court,  and  is  surmounted  with  battle- 
ments. The  present  bishop  has  converted  a  portion  of  the 
building  into  a  college  for  clergy. 

The  bishops  of  Worcester  early  had  a  house  in  London. 
In  857  King  Bertwulf  gave  Alcune,  Bishop  of  Worcester,  a 
piece  of  ground  outside  the  west  gate  of  London,  called 
Ceolmundinge-haga,  the  rent  being  i2d.  a  year.  They 
afterwards  had  a  house  in  the  Strand,  for  which  Bishop 
Wulstan  de  Bransford  gave  William  de  Netterton  40^.  and 
a  robe  yearly  for  keeping  it  in  order.  Amongst  the  accounts 
of  Bishop  Tideman  is  the  entry :  "  To  Henry  Cambrigge, 
citizen  and  fishmonger,  the  keeping  of  the  house  without  the 
gate  of  the  new  Temple  together  with  easements  of  all 
houses  lying  between  the  great  gate  of  the  said  house  and  the 
Savoy,  also  a  certain  void  piece  of  ground  whereon  to  build 
a  house  for  life — for  the  rent  of  one  pound  of  pepper  yearly, 
repairing  all  the  houses  outside  the  gate,  and  finding  the 
bishop  and  his  successors  in  herbs." 


i6        ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL   PALACES 

The  episcopal  residence  was  afterwards  destroyed  by 
the  Protector  Somerset  to  make  room  for  Somerset  House, 
the  bishop  receiving  in  exchange  a  mansion  in  Whitefriars. 
In  1680  they  moved  again  to  Soho  Square,  that  being  the 
"  genteelest  "  part  of  the  town. 

Chichester 

The  see  of  Chichester  was  originally  fixed  at  Selsey.  The 
cathedral  and  bishop's  palace  were  evidently  built  close  to 
the  shore,  in  Saxon  times,  and  when  it  was  realized  that  the 
sea  was  gradually  encroaching  on  the  land,  it  was  deemed 
advisable  to  transfer  the  buildings  to  some  more  permanent 
site.  Camden  says  that  in  his  day  at  low  tide,  the  ruins  of 
the  ancient  Saxon  buildings  might  still  be  seen.  Part  of 
the  coast  still  bears  the  names  of  Bishop's  Park  and  Park 
Coppice.  This  land  had  been  granted  to  the  bishops  in 
very  early  days — probably  when  the  bishopric  was  first 
founded  in  681 — and  was  confirmed  to  them  by  Henry  I.  A 
curious  old  document  in  the  bishops'  archives  shows  with 
what  extraordinary  care  the  game  was  preserved. 

About  1070  most  of  the  old  cathedral  and  other  buildings 
were  pulled  down,  the  materials  being  taken  to  Chichester 
to  form  a  new  cathedral.  Stigand  was  the  last  Bishop  of 
Selsey,  and  the  first  of  Chichester,  but  he  was  not  able  to 
proceed  very  quickly  with  the  new  buildings.  The  times 
were  too  troublous,  and  the  men  too  much  occupied  with  the 
sterner  duties  of  warfare,  to  be  able  to  turn  their  attention 
to  stones  and  mortar.  But  when,  in  the  reign  of  Henry  I., 
the  country  had  somewhat  quieted  down.  Bishop  Ralph 
was  able  to  do  more  in  this  respect.  He  built  a  beautiful 
cathedral  and  a  palace  for  himself.  The  site  he  chose  had 
evidently  been  once  a    Roman  house,  for  when   alterations 


INTRODUCTORY   CHAPTER  17 

were  being  made,  part  of  a  Roman  pavement  was  discovered 
as  well  as  several  coins.  In  1104  a  devastating  fire  con- 
sumed most  of  the  town  of  Chichester,  and  both  the 
cathedral  and  the  palace  perished  in  the  flames.  Seffrid, 
the  second  bishop  of  that  name,  received  a  grant  from  Earl 
William  of  a  fourth  part  of  the  city,  extending  from  the 
south  to  the  west  gate,  including  the  site  of  the  cathedral 
and  episcopal  palace,  as  well  as  the  whole  close.  This 
grant  was  confirmed  by  several  succeeding  monarchs. 

It  was  probably  about  this  time  that  Seffrid  built  the  new 
cathedral  and  palace,  which  were  once  more  doomed  to 
destruction,  being  burnt  to  the  ground  in  1186.  Nothing 
daunted  by  these  two  calamities,  the  bishop  began  the  work 
of  restoration  almost  immediately,  and  the  new  cathedral 
was  consecrated  in  iigg.  It  may  be  that  a  gloom  had  been 
cast  over  the  bishop's  residence  by  this  twice  repeated 
destruction,  which  according  to  the  predictions  of  certain 
wise  folk  would  certainly  be  followed  by  a  third  ;  at  any  rate 
the  succeeding  bishops  had  little  interest  in  the  palace, 
though  they  did  much  towards  beautifying  and  strengthen- 
ing other  residences.  Bishop  Neville  obtained  a  grant  from 
Henr}'  III.  to  build  a  palace  for  himself  in  London,  which 
was  no  doubt  in  accordance  with  that  prelate's  magnificent 
ideas ;  but  we  hear  nothing  of  restorations  at  Chichester. 
Bishop  Rede,  his  successor,  appears  to  have  had  still  more 
exalted  ideals  of  episcopal  dignity,  and  considered  his 
residences  far  inferior  to  those  of  contemporary  prelates ; 
he  accordingly  built  Amberley  Castle,  part  of  which  still 
remains  to  bear  witness  to  his  architectural  tastes.  But  he 
again  appears  to  have  quite  ignored  the  palace  at  Chichester. 
It  was  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VI.  that  the  episcopal  estates 
increased  to  an  almost  incredible  extent.    Adam  dc  Moleynes 

E.E.P.  C 


i8        ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

or  Molyneux  received  licence  from  that  monarch  to  impark 
two  thousand  acres  of  land  in  Amberley,  Cakeham,  and 
Cold  Waltham ;  two  thousand  at  Drungewick,  one 
thousand  in  West  Wittering,  two  thousand  in  Bexhill,  two 
thousand  in  Bishopstone  and  Heathfield  ;  two  thousand  in 
Broill  and  Ticehurst,  with  leave  also  to  crenellate  with 
stone  all  his  manor-houses  in  these  places.  He  did  not 
live  long,  however,  to  enjoy  his  vast  possessions.  He 
obtained  leave  to  absent  himself  the  following  year ;  when 
with  an  annuity  of  five  hundred  marks  he  prepared  to  enjoy 
himself  in  more  congenial  surroundings.  He  probably 
resigned  the  bishopric  and  proceeded  to  Portsmouth,  with 
the  intention  of  crossing  over  to  the  Continent,  but  got  no 
further,  being  attacked  by  seamen  in  the  boat  and  murdered. 

Succeeding  bishops  spent  most  of  their  time  at  Amberley 
or  Aldingbourne,  and  when  Bishop  Sherburne  was  raised  to 
the  see  in  1521,  he  found  Chichester  Palace  in  a  ruinous 
condition.  He  built  the  great  dining-room,  the  timber 
framed  ceiling  of  which  was  divided  into  compartments, 
and  decorated  with  Gothic  scrolls  and  armorial  bearings. 
He  entirely  remodelled  the  plan,  and  divided  the  former 
hall  into  an  upper  and  lower  apartment,  adding  also  a  great 
hall,  the  ceiling  of  which  was  said  to  have  been  painted  by 
Bernardi. 

All  this  wealth  of  course  attracted  the  eagle  eye  of  Queen 
Elizabeth,  who  pounced  down  on  the  tempting  prey,  and  carried 
off  eight  out  of  the  thirteen  episcopal  manors.  Selsey  was 
amongst  the  number  of  those  alienated.  It  appears  the 
bishops  had  been  in  the  habit  of  storing  up  wood  and  timber 
at  Selsey,  to  supply  the  episcopal  residence  of  Chichester  with 
fuel  and  material  for  repairs,  and  the  bishop  complained 
that  it  was  impossible  to  keep  the  house  in  order  without 


INTRODUCTORY   CHAPTER  ig 

these  supplies.  Judge  Heath,  repHed  on  behalf  of  the  queen, 
that  "  Aldingbourne  was  near,  and  the  bishop  could  be 
supplied  from  thence";  but  this  was  small  comfort  to  the 
unfortunate  bishop,  as  his  predecessors  had  cut  down  all  the 
trees  there.  With  such  trials  and  impoverished  revenues, 
little  could  be  done  to  the  palace  ;  the  bishop  no  doubt  felt 
his  tenure  so  uncertain,  that  it  was  hardly  worth  while 
spending  time  and  money  on  what  might  be  confiscated  next 
day.  Bishop  Henry  King  did,  however,  turn  his  attention 
to  the  house,  and  restored  it  considerably  in  1641.  He  might 
have  saved  himself  the  labour,  for  two  years  after  the  town 
was  besieged  by  Sir  WiUiam  Waller.  The  bishop  was  in 
residence  at  his  palace,  and  received  scant  mercy  from  the 
Puritans,  who  carried  him  off  a  prisoner  to  London.  They 
had  evidently  promised  that  his  library  should  be  spared 
the  usual  rough  treatment,  a  promise  that  was  not  kept, 
for  the  bishop  complains  in  his  will  that  it  was  "  seized, 
contrary  to  the  condition  and  contract  of  the  general]  and 
Counsell  of  War  at  the  taking  of  that  city."  It  was  com- 
pletely ransacked,  and  many  valuable  registers  and  documents 
lost,  which  might  have  thrown  more  light  on  the  past  history  of 
the  bishopric.  Bishop  King  passed  the  next  seventeen  years 
in  retirement.  At  the  Restoration  he  once  more  returned  to 
his  episcopal  palace  at  Chichester,  which  was,  of  course,  in 
a  very  ruinous  state.  After  all  his  trials,  he  had  neither  the 
energy  nor  the  means  to  do  much  repair.  He  must  have 
spent  the  last  nine  years  of  his  life  with  few  of  the  comforts 
so  necessary  to  old  age,  and  died  in  1669.  Opinions  vary 
considerably  as  to  this  bishop's  character,  and  are  evidently 
not  the  result  of  unbiassed  judgment.  His  friends  describe 
him  as  "  the  epitome  of  all  honours,  virtues,  and  generous 
nobleness,  and  a  person  never  to  be  forgotten  by  his  tenants, 

C    2 


20        ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL   PALACES 

and  by  the  poor."  Those  who  evidently  differed  from  his 
religious  views  give  him  the  character  of  "  a  proud  prelate, 
and  a  most  pragmatical  malignant."  These  epithets  savour 
so  much  of  Puritan  fanaticism  that  one  prefers  to  believe 
the  kinder  judgment. 

The  palace  was  partly  restored  in  1727  by  Bishop 
Waddington,  who  spent  a  considerable  sum  on  it.  He  made 
many  changes  in  the  exterior  appearance,  substituting 
window-frames  for  the  old  mullions,  and  a  flat  parapet  for 
the  original  gable  roof.  After  the  death  of  Bishop  Hare  in 
1740  there  was  a  law  suit  between  his  widow  and  the  new 
bishop,  who  demanded  about  ^^80  for  dilapidations.  Mrs. 
Hare  was  not  willing  to  pay  so  large  a  sum  :  her  husband 
having  kept  the  palace  in  perfect  repair  she  could  not 
believe  that  the  few  months'  vacancy  could  have  wrought 
such  havoc  with  the  buildings.  The  new  bishop  was  evidently 
a  man  of  fastidious  tastes,  with  a  keen  eye  for  all  deficiencies. 
Nothing  escaped  him — the  window  seats  that  were  cracked 
with  the  sun,  the  garden  wall  that  was  a  little  out  of  the 
perpendicular,  and  the  stucco  that  was  discoloured — all  were 
added  to  the  bill  for  dilapidations,  which  Mrs.  Hare  was 
expected  to  defray.  Her  lawyer  marvels  that  the  spiders' 
webs  on  the  stable  walls  had  escaped  his  lordship,  and  that 
he  had  not  wished  the  whole  house  turned  round,  so  that  the 
window  seats  should  escape  the  warping  rays  of  sunlight. 
The  bishop's  demands  were  judged  exorbitant,  and  the 
original  sum  agreed  on  by  Mrs.  Hare's  representatives  was 
paid,  with  a  little  extra  for  the  wainscot  in  the  chapel.  Once 
more  the  house  was  neglected,  and  once  more  completely 
restored  by  Bishop  Buckner,  who  made  many  judicious 
alterations. 

It    is    curious    how    the    history   of  each    palace    differs 


INTRODUCTORY    CHAPTER  21 

from,  and  yet  resembles,  others.  Some  have  been  built 
with  such  pride,  and  adorned  with  so  much  loving  care  : 
they  were  jealously  guarded  too,  sometimes  at  the  cost  of 
conscience  and  principle.  And  others,  again,  like  Chichester, 
seem  never  to  have  aroused  any  sentiments  at  all.  It  is  one 
long  story  of  neglect  and  restoration — restoration  and  neglect. 
Occasionally  one  of  the  bishops  made  an  effort  to  restore, 
but  it  was  never  carried  on  by  his  successor.  And  yet, 
strange  to  say,  the  palace  has  escaped  complete  destruction 
and  stands  to  this  day,  with  more  remains  of  antiquity  than 
most  of  its  contemporaries.  It  seems,  like  some  personali- 
ties, to  have  existed  without  arousing  any  deep  feelings, 
either  of  love  or  hatred.  It  just  stands  there,  and  the  storms 
and  tumults  of  the  past  have  had  little  eifect  on  its  walls, 
and  even  as  we  read  its  history  it  arouses  but  little  of  the 
interest  that  clings  round  others. 

Chichester  House  stands  to  the  west  of  the  cathedral,  and 
is  entered  through  Canon  Gate,  erected  in  the  reign  of 
Henry  III.,  above  which  was  formerly  the  ecclesiastical 
prison.  The  chapel  also  dates  from  the  same  period,  and  is 
often  used  for  ordinations.  When  restoring  it  some  time  ago 
a  curious  picture  was  found  on  the  south  wall,  which  had  no 
doubt  been  concealed  when  some  of  Henry  VIII.'s  "  visitors  " 
were  expected.  It  dates  from  the  twelfth  or  thirteenth 
century  and  represents  Our  Lady  seated  on  a  rich  seat  with 
the  Divine  Infant  in  her  arms;  the  angles  of  the  picture  are 
adorned  with  birds'  heads.  The  dining-hall  remains  very 
much  as  Bishop  Sherburne  left  it,  with  its  curious  painted 
ceiling  already  described. 

Perhaps  the  most  interesting  part  of  the  whole  building  is 
the  kitchen,  which  is  said  to  be  a  relic  of  old  times,  when 
the  site  was  occupied  by  a  monastery.     It  certainly  has  that 


22        ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

appearance,  with  its  double-arched  door  and  its  roof  sup- 
ported by  trusses  of  oak  beams  at  each  angle.  The  garden, 
which  covers  eight  acres,  comprises  part  of  the  ancient 
ramparts,  now  converted  into  a  terrace. 

Allusion  has  already  been  made  to  other  residences  of  the 
bishops  of  Chichester.  They  were  so  numerous  that  a 
description  of  all  would  be  tedious ;  but  two  of  the  most 
important  deserve  a  few  words  :  they  were  Amberley  Castle 
and  the  house  in  London. 

Amberley  was  amongst  the  very  earliest  endowments  of 
the  Saxon  see  of  Selsey,  and  was  included  in  the  grant  made 
by  Csedwallar.  At  the  time  of  the  Domesday  Survey  the 
bishop  possessed  twenty-three  hides  in  "  Amberle,"  extend- 
ing, no  doubt,  over  several  parishes.  Part  of  this  they 
evidently  held  in  demesne.  The  exact  date  when  they  took 
up  their  residence  at  Amberley  is  uncertain.  It  was  probably 
after  the  Conquest  that  a  castle  was  built,  for  in  the  remains 
now  existing  there  is  distinct  evidence  of  Norman  architec- 
ture. In  the  fourteenth  century  Bishop  William  Rede 
began  to  build  a  castle.  He  evidentiy  considered  that  his 
predecessors  had  been  somewhat  negligent  in  providing 
suitable  residences,  and  set  to  work  to  make  up  for  these 
deficiencies.  He  had  ideas  of  his  own  on  the  subject  of 
architecture,  and  was  not  entirely  guided  by  any  existing 
models.  The  builder  has  left  the  stamp  of  his  own  strong 
personality  on  this  work  of  his,  which  has  stood  for  six 
centuries,  and  may  well  continue  for  as  many  more.  Neither 
was  he  one  of  those  who  in  their  hurry  for  results  neglect  the 
foundations.  He  intended  the  work  to  be  as  perfect  as 
man  could  make  it,  and  ten  years  passed  before  it  was 
completed. 

In  1377  the  bishop  received   from  Richard  II.  licence  "to 


INTRODUCTORY    CHAPTER  23 

fortify  with  a  wall  of  stone  and  lime  his  manor  of  Amberley, 
and  to  crenellate  it,  for  himself  and  his  successors  for  ever." 
It  consisted  of  two  square  towers  and  three  projecting  semi- 
circular towers,  two  of  them  flanked  the  gateway  and  one 
faced  north  at  the  end  of  the  hall,  which  had  evidently  been 
used  as  a  chapel.  The  whole  enclosed  space  measured 
260  feet  by  160  feet.  It  was  a  favourite  residence  of  the 
bishops  during  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries. 
Bishop  Sherburne  was  the  last  to  inhabit  this  castle.  He 
added  considerably  to  the  main  building,  and  put  in  two 
large  mullioned  windows  in  the  state  chamber.  The  artist 
Bernard!  spent  many  months  under  the  bishop's  roof,  and 
painted  the  ceiling  of  the  "queen's  chamber"  about  the 
same  time  that  he  decorated  the  palace  at  Chichester. 

We  have  already  said  that  Bishop  Neville  obtained  a  grant 
from  Henry  III.  to  build  a  palace  in  London.  The  bishops 
of  Chichester  had,  of  course,  always  owned  a  residence  in 
the  metropolis,  but  it  was  not  spacious  enough  for  Bishop 
Neville's  enormous  household.  He  accordingly  chose  a  site 
in  the  seclusion  of  Lincoln's  Inn,  close  to  Chancery  Lane, 
and  the  palace  which  he  built  could  compare  favourably 
with  any  episcopal  residence  in  England.  He  lived  there 
many  years  in  great  state,  and  died  there  in  1244.  His 
successors  also  spent  a  good  deal  of  their  time  in  this  palace. 
The  garden  covered  many  acres,  but  was  reduced  in  size  by 
Bishop  Wych,  who  leased  a  part  of  it  for  building  purposes. 
It  was  evidently  regarded  with  covetous  eyes  by  one  of 
Henry  VIII. 's  courtiers,  William  Sulyard,  usher  of  the  bed- 
chamber ;  and  whether  or  not  any  force  was  brought  to  bear 
on  the  owner  we  know  not,  but  it  was  leased  for  ninety-nine 
years.  Perhaps  the  bishop  was  glad  of  this  augmentation 
to  his  impoverished  revenues.  It  seems  to  have  been  little  used 


24        ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL   PALACES 

as  an  episcopal  residence  after  this,  and  was  finally  alienated 
by  Bishop  Sampson.  It  has  since  been  divided  into 
tenements,  and  part  of  the  site  still  bears  the  name  of 
Chichester  Rents. 

Salisbury 

The  see  was  originally  fixed  at  Old  Sarum,  two  miles  from 
the  present  Salisbury.  In  early  times  it  was  a  fortified  town, 
garrisoned  by  soldiers  and  surrounded  by  entrenchments,  the 
whole  area  being  under  martial  law. 

The  bishops  appear  to  have  inhabited  the  castle  there, 
although  it  was  never  actually  granted  to  them,  but  only  in 
their  keeping.  The  place  had  little  to  recommend  it,  having 
but  a  poor  supply  of  water,  and  being  in  such  an  exposed 
position  that  tradition  says :  "  When  the  wind  did  blow  they 
could  not  hear  the  priest  say  Mass."  Besides  these  natural 
defects,  the  priests  and  soldiers  were  uncongenial  neighbours, 
the  devotions  of  the  former  often  stirring  the  rude  soldiery  to 
open  hostility.  On  one  occasion  they  surrounded  the 
bishop's  house,  while  he  and  most  of  his  clergy  were  saying 
their  office  in  the  cathedral,  and  refused  them  admittance, 
obliging  the  unfortunate  priests  to  spend  the  whole  of  a 
winter's  night  without  shelter.  On  other  occasions  they 
would  find  the  doors  of  their  church  bolted  and  barricaded, 
making  it  impossible  for  them  to  perform  their  sacred  duties. 
The  annoyances  were  so  frequent  that  at  last  Bishop  Richard 
Poore  asked  leave  of  the  Pope  to  transfer  the  see  to  a  more 
secluded  spot  where  his  clergy  could  be  sheltered  alike  from 
the  inclemencies  of  the  weather  and  the  attacks  of  their 
hostile  neighbours. 

Wishing  for  some  token  of  divine  favour  before  beginning 
so  great  a  work,  an  arrow  was  shot  down  into  the  valley 


INTRODUCTORY    CHAPTER  25 

below,  and  the  spot  where  it  ahghted  became  the  site  of  the 
new  cathedral.  The  bishops  took  up  their  abode  at  Wilton, 
just  outside  Salisbury,  though  there  is  no  record  of  the  exact 
spot.  The  succeeding  bishops  of  Salisbury  passed  across  the 
stage  of  life,  playing  but  a  very  minor  part  and  arousing 
neither  applause  nor  condemnation  ;  nor  is  there  any  record 
of  the  scenes  on  which  their  small  roles  were  played.  They 
certainly  had  a  palace  at  Edington,  near  Westbury,  in  the 
fifteenth  century,  which  Bishop  William  Ayscough  visited 
occasionally  during  his  twelve  years'  episcopate.  His  visits 
were  few  and  far  between,  for  he  was  in  constant  attendance 
on  King  Henry  VI.  in  the  capacity  of  confessor.  His 
parishioners  appear  to  have  resented  his  long  absence,  for 
we  are  told  that  during  one  of  his  flying  visits  to  his  diocese 
he  said  Mass,  on  the  feast  of  SS.  Peter  and  Paul,  before 
an  unruly  congregation  of  noisy  peasants.  He  had  barely 
finished  when  they  dragged  him  from  the  altar  steps,  in 
his  sacred  vestments,  to  the  top  of  a  hill  near  by.  His  head 
was  then  struck  off,  and  the  blood-stained  vestments  divided 
amongst  the  murderers  as  a  memorial  of  their  heroic  deed. 
His  naked  body  was  discovered  on  the  hill  by  some  religious 
of  the  house  of  Bonhommes,  who  carried  it  to  their  house  at 
Edington,  where  it  was  buried.  In  the  meantime  the  infuriated 
mob  attacked  the  episcopal  palace,  which  they  ransacked 
and  plundered  of  all  its  treasures.  The  murdered  bishop 
was  succeeded  by  Richard  Beauchamp,  who,  unlike  his 
predecessors,  has  left  many  traces  of  himself  behind,  par- 
ticularly in  the  buildings  he  erected.  So  highly  esteemed 
was  he  for  his  architectural  talents,  that  he  was  appointed 
by  Edward  IV.  to  superintend  the  new  buildings  at  Windsor, 
where  St.  George's  Chapel  still  bears  witness  to  the  artistic 
tastes  of  this  great  prelate.    Nor  did  his  royal  master's  favour 


26        ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

lead  him  to  neglect  his  own  diocese.  He  added  greatly  to 
the  beauty  of  Salisbury  Cathedral,  and  the  great  hall  of  the 
episcopal  palace  was  built  by  him.  His  gateway  tower  can 
still  be  seen,  though  the  doorway  has  been  blocked  and  the 
whole  surmounted  with  a  battlemented  parapet.  Succeeding 
bishops  added  nothing  to  the  house  :  several  of  them  held  the 
see  but  a  short  time,  and  others  never  inhabited  the  palace 
at  all,  but  spent  most  of  their  time  at  Ramsbury.  In  the 
second  year  of  Bishop  Blythe's  episcopate  the  palace  was  in 
charge  of  a  caretaker,  who,  in  1495,  received  for  his  services 
"  all  the  grass  growing  within  the  precincts  of  the  palace,  a 
cart-load  of  hay  from  the  bishop's  meadow,  2d.  a  day,  and  a 
robe  annually." 

John  Jewel  was  the  first  Protestant  bishop  who  occupied 
the  episcopal  palace.  He  was  indeed  a  gem  in  the  circle  of 
prelates,  and  by  the  brilliancy  of  his  virtues  attracted  the 
admiring  gaze  even  of  those  who  differed  most  from  his 
religious  belief.  From  the  first  he  attached  himself  to  the 
Protestant  cause,  and  remained  true  to  his  principles 
throughout  the  troublous  times  of  Queen  Mary,  when  he 
retired  to  the  Continent.  He  remained  abroad  until  the 
accession  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  who,  almost  immediately, 
installed  him  in  the  bishopric  of  Salisbury.  He  was  a 
learned  and  holy  man,  whose  door  was  never  closed  to  the 
poor  and  suffering.  He  built  the  library  over  the  cloisters, 
and  took  into  his  palace  several  boys  who  had  scholarly 
abilities,  but  no  means  of  developing  them.  He  also  paid  for 
the  education  of  many  students  at  Oxford  :  amongst  others, 
Richard  Hooker,  in  whom  he  early  discovered  signs  of  great 
promise.  Richard  Hooker  was  a  native  of  Exeter,  and  when 
travelling  home  on  foot  from  the  University,  used  to  call  at 
his   patron's   palace.     He  was   always  sure  of  a  welcome, 


INTRODUCTORY   CHAPTER  27 

which  sometimes  took  a  very  practical  form.  We  are  told 
that  during  one  of  these  passing  visits,  the  good  bishop, 
noticing  the  tired  looks  and  dragging  steps  of  the  penniless 
student,  presented  him  with  a  few  silver  pieces,  which  he 
jestingly  named  his  "walking-staff."  The  generous  gift,  and 
the  kind  tact  with  which  it  was  given,  must  indeed  have 
cheered  the  foot-sore  student  on  his  way.  This  great  Jewel 
was  lost  to  the  world  in  1571,  and  lies  buried  in  the 
cathedral.  Fuller,  in  his  "  Church  History  "  remarked  :  "  It 
is  hard  to  say  whether  his  soul  or  his  ejaculations  arrived  first 
in  heaven,  seeing  he  prayed  dying,  and  died  praying." 

The  next  nine  bishops  who  inhabited  the  palace  neither 
added  to  nor  embellished  it — though  one  almost  wonders  that 
the  original  dimensions  could  have  sufficed  for  Bishop  Cotton 
and  his  family  of  nineteen  children. 

During  the  Commonwealth,  the  episcopal  palace  fared 
somewhat  better  than  other  Church  property.  The  great 
hall  was  wrecked,  though  not  completely  demolished.  The 
ruined  building  was  sold  to  a  Dutch  tailor.  Van  Ling  by 
name,  whose  material  mind  saw  nothing  incongruous  in  con- 
verting the  stately  episcopal  apartments  into  an  inn.  The 
remaining  rooms  were  let  out  separately  to  poor  working 
people,  and  a  passage  was  opened  through  the  close  wall  to 
admit  the  country  folk,  who  came  through  Harnham,  to 
attend  the  weekly  market.  In  this  deplorable  state  the  palace 
remained  until  the  Restoration,  when  Bishop  Seth  Ward 
was  installed.  After  repairing  the  cathedral — which,  strange 
to  say,  had  passed  almost  unscathed  through  the  storms  of 
the  Revolution — the  bishop  practically  rebuilt  his  palace, 
where  he  once  received  a  visit  from  James  II.  For  the  next 
hundred  years  the  palace  remained  untouched  until  the  time 
of  Bishop  Barrington,  who  entirely  remodelled  the  building, 


28        ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

and  made  a  new  entrance.  Little  has  been  changed  since 
his  day.  It  stands  now  on  the  south  side  of  the  cathedral 
close,  the  battlements  fitting  in  well  with  its  old-world 
surroundings.  A  door  from  the  cloisters  takes  one  into 
the  garden,  from  whence  the  cathedral  can  be  seen  to  great 
advantage.  The  house  is  a  fine  old  mansion.  The  hall, 
built  by  Bishop  Beauchamp  in  1460,  fortunately  survived 
the  ravages  of  the  Commonwealth,  and  is  now  hung  with 
portraits  of  all  the  bishops  since  the  Restoration — these 
are  mostly  copies,  with  the  exception  of  those  representing 
Bishops  Hyde,  Burnet,  Sherlocke,  Barrington,  and  Douglas, 
which  are  originals. 

Exeter 

In  Saxon  times  the  see  was  fixed  at  Crediton,  and  was 
transferred  after  the  Norman  Conquest  to  Exeter.  There  is 
no  record  of  any  episcopal  residence  until  the  time  of  Bishop 
Brewer,  who  held  the  see  from  1224  to  1244.  He  is  said  to 
have  built  a  palace,  and  attached  to  it  was  a  chantry  chapel 
where  Masses  were  constantly  offered  for  departed  bishops. 
The  dean  and  chapter  made  an  annual  offering  of  two  wax 
candles  of  a  pound  weight  on  the  feast  of  St.  Faith.  There 
is  constant  reference  to  this  chapel  throughout  the  history  of 
the  palace,  and  it  still  exists  as  a  domestic  chapel.  Bishop 
Brewer  did  not  spend  much  of  his  time  at  Exeter.  Five 
years  of  his  episcopate  were  spent  in  the  Holy  Land,  and  on 
his  return  he  was  constantly  sent  abroad  by  the  king  on 
important  affairs  of  State.  His  successor,  Richard  Blond, 
was  a  very  different  stamp  of  man,  preferring  the  seclusion  of 
his  own  dwelling  and  the  company  of  his  books.  His 
simplicity  and  trustfulness  of  course  made  him  an  easy  victim 
to  the  unscrupulous  men  in  his  service  who  hesitated  not  to 


INTRODUCTORY   CHAPTER  29 

grant  away  benefices  in  his  name  and  dispose  of  his  property. 
In  1257,  when  on  his  death-bed,  they  congregated  at  his 
palace,  and,  before  the  breath  had  left  his  body,  continued 
their  robberies  under  a  solemn  oath  of  secrecy.  Two  years 
later,  the  ringleaders  of  this  band  of  robbers,  filled  with 
remorse,  went  to  Bishop  Bronescombe,  the  successor  of 
Blond,  and  in  the  chapter-house  of  Buckfastleigh  Monastery 
they  confessed  their  sins  and  asked  for  absolution,  which  was 
granted  them  after  the  prescribed  penance  had  been  performed. 
Walter  de  Stapledon,  who  was  consecrated  in  1307,  spent 
most  of  his  episcopate  in  London,  where  he  built  "  a  very 
fair  mansion  without  Temple  Bar  for  himself  and  his 
successors."  This  prelate  was  a  great  favourite  of  Edward  II. 
and  supported  him  loyally  in  his  struggle  with  Queen 
Isabella.  When  this  queen  and  her  lover,  Mortimer,  landed 
in  Suffolk,  the  king  fled  to  Wales,  leaving  Stapledon  in 
charge  of  London.  Accounts  vary  as  to  his  murder,  but  it 
appears  he  called  on  the  mayor  to  deliver  up  the  keys  of  the 
city.  The  mayor  refused,  and  the  mob  at  his  back  set  fire 
to  the  gates  of  the  episcopal  house.  The  bishop,  seeing  his 
case  was  hopeless,  left  his  palace  to  be  plundered  by  the 
excited  mob,  and,  mounting  a  horse,  escaped  towards  the 
sanctuary  of  St.  Paul's.  However,  he  was  overtaken  at 
the  north  door,  dragged  from  his  horse  to  the  "  Chepe," 
where  he  was  proclaimed  "  a  public  traitor,  a  seducer  of  the 
king,  and  a  destroyer  of  the  liberties  of  the  city."  His  head 
was  struck  oif  and  sent  to  the  queen,  and  the  poor  mutilated 
body  buried  in  a  heap  of  rubbish  near  his  palace.  It  was 
afterwards  taken  up  and  interred  with  great  pomp  in  his 
own  cathedral.  The  following  year  John  Grandisson  was 
appointed  to  the  see.  He  found  the  revenues  in  a  very 
impoverished  state,  and  the  diocese  needing  much  care  and 


30        ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

attention.  He  devoted  all  his  energies  to  the  work,  and 
obtained  leave  to  absent  himself  from  a  council  in  London, 
saying  there  was  so  much  to  be  done  in  Exeter,  and  also,  he 
had  no  "  lodging"  in  London  since  the  house  in  the  Strand 
had  not  recovered  the  attack  of  the  mob  in  1307.  This 
bishop  came  from  a  noble  and  wealthy  family  and  made  a 
judicious  use  of  his  fortune.  The  half-finished  cathedral  was 
completed  by  him,  and  he  evidently  added  considerably  to 
the  beauty  and  comfort  of  the  palace. 

Not  long  ago,  when  alterations  were  being  made,  the 
plaster  on  the  ceiling  of  one  of  the  rooms  was  removed, 
revealing  a  fine  oak  roof  with  ornamental  cross-beams 
and  beautifully  carved  bosses  at  the  points  of  junction. 
One  of  these  bosses  represented  a  bishop  with  mitre,  amice, 
and  chasuble,  and  another,  the  figure  of  a  woman  in  a 
hood,  both  surmounted  by  foliage.  Two  adjoining  cross- 
beams bore  the  arms  of  Grandisson  and  Montacute ;  and 
as  Bishop  Grandisson's  mother  was  a  Montacute  it  is 
reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  figures  represent  him  and  his 
mother.  A  little  of  the  original  gilding  can  still  be  seen,  and 
remains  of  red,  black,  and  white  paint.  This  prelate  came 
into  all  the  family  property  on  the  death  of  his  eldest 
brother  in  1358.  He  founded  the  College  of  St.  Mary  Ottery, 
and  benefited  many  churches,  hospitals,  and  religious  houses 
in  his  diocese.  At  his  death,  in  1369,  the  see  of  Exeter  was 
one  of  the  richest  in  the  kingdom,  owning  thirty-two  manors, 
and  fourteen  fair  palaces,  all  completely  furnished  with 
necessaries.  This  bishop's  register  contains  many  interesting 
details.  He  speaks  of  the  prison  on  the  west  side  of  the 
palace,  where  priests,  convicted  of  felony  and  scandal,  were 
confined.  During  the  episcopacy  of  Thomas  de  Brantingham, 
six  of  these  prisoners  broke  loose  during  the  bishop's  absence  ; 


INTRODUCTORY   CHAPTER  31 

they  murdered  Simon  Prescote,  the  chaplain  and  keeper  of 
the  palace,  also  the  gaoler,  and  the  keeper  of  the  wardrobe, 
and,  after  plundering  their  chambers,  escaped.  The  bishop 
was  exonerated  from  all  blame  in  the  matter,  and  pardoned 
by  the  king.  Four  years  afterwards  the  same  story  was 
repeated,  and  seven  others  escaped,  but  evidently  without 
violence. 

During  the  episcopacy  of  Bishop  Lacy,  the  City  of 
Exeter  was  visited  by  Henry  VI.,  on  his  progress  through 
the  west  of  England  in  July,  1452.  The  event  is  recorded  in 
some  old  annals,  which  tell  us  that  the  mayor  and  chamber, 
with  three  hundred  persons  in  the  city's  livery,  went  forth  to 
meet  him  to  a  certain  moor  on  the  west  side  of  Honiton's 
Clist.  All  the  parochial  clergy  of  Exeter  were  stationed  at 
the  High  Cross,  where  the  king,  after  receiving  the  incense 
and  kissing  the  Cross,  proceeded  to  Broadgate  at  the  entry  of 
the  Close.  After  hearing  Mass  at  the  High  Altar,  he  retired 
to  the  episcopal  palace,  where  he  remained  for  two  days. 
During  this  royal  visit  a  "gaol  delivery "  was  held  in  the 
bishop's  hall,  and  two  men  condemned.  The  bishop  resented 
this  exercise  of  temporal  authority  in  his  own  court,  and  the 
condemned  men  were  eventually  released.  The  palace  was 
much  improved  in  the  time  of  Bishop  Peter  Courtenay, 
consecrated  in  1478.  He  put  in  a  fine  oriel  window, 
unfortunately  lost  in  recent  alterations,  and  also  a  magnificent 
mantelpiece  in  the  dining-hall,  which  has  since  been  moved 
to  the  hall.  This  bishop  strongly  opposed  the  match 
between  King  Richard  III.,  and  Ann,  Duchess  of  Exeter,  and 
succeeded  in  preventing  it.  Nevertheless  he  assisted  at  that 
monarch's  coronation,  in  1483,  and  escaped  to  Brittany  soon 
after.  During  his  absence  the  king  visited  the  episcopal 
palace  at  Exeter,  which  he  found  well  stocked  with  provisions. 


32        ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

Bishop  Courtenay  remained  on  the  Continent  during  Richard's 
short  reign,  5.nd  helped  to  estabhsh  Henry  VII.  on  the 
throne,  for  which  he  was  translated  to  the  see  of  Winchester. 

In  1519,  the  bishopric  was  held  by  John  Veysey,  who  was 
more  of  a  courtier  than  a  priest.  So  courteous  was  he  to  his 
royal  master  that  he  agreed  with  all  his  varying  opinions, 
upholding  him  in  the  question  of  the  divorce,  and  admitting 
his  supremacy  in  the  Church.  This  loyal  bishop,  at  his 
master's  request,  alienated  nearly  all  the  episcopal  possessions, 
"  leaving  but  three  manors,  and  those  also  leased  out,  and 
but  one  house  bare  and  without  furniture,  and  yet  charged 
with  sundry  fees  and  annuities."  From  being  one  of  the 
richest  sees  in  the  kingdom,  Exeter  became  one  of  the 
poorest,  and  when  Miles  Coverdale,  with  his  wife  arrived  at 
the  palace  in  1551,  they  found  that  "  the  bones  of  his  see  had 
been  so  clean  picked,  that  he  could  not  easily  leave  them 
with  less  flesh  than  he  found  upon  them." 

The  bishops  who  succeeded  him  lived  but  little  at  the 
palace,  and  consequently  there  is  but  little  to  record  until 
1621,  when  Bishop  Valentine  Cary  applied  to  the  mayor  for 
permission  to  make  a  door  through  the  city  wall,  to  enable 
him  to  pass  into  the  fields  of  Southernhay  without  encountering 
the  inquisitive  glances  of  the  citizens.  This  request  was 
denied  him,  whereupon  he  appealed  to  James  I.,  who  wrote 
to  the  mayor  and  aldermen  asking  them  to  make  the  door, 
and  close  it  again  if  necessary.  But  the  mayor  was  jealous 
of  his  rights,  and  once  more,  politely  but  firmly,  refused. 
The  bishop  was  not  a  man  to  be  overcome  by  difficulties  and 
at  his  instigation  the  case  was  referred  to  the  Privy  Council, 
and  an  order  issued  to  the  effect  that  a  door  should  be  made, 
not  exceeding  two  and  a  half  feet  in  breadth,  and  six  feet  in 
height ;  that  a  single  key  should  be  made  for  the  door  and 


INTRODUCTORY   CHAPTER  33 


kept  by  the  bishop  himself  during  his  residence  at  the  palace  ; 
but  if  he  were  absent  for  four  days,  the  key  was  to  be  given  to 
the  mayor.  The  bishop  was  ordered  to  defray  all  charges 
occasioned  by  this  passage,  and  also  to  have  it  closed  in  case 
of  tumult  and  insurrection,  or  if  the  city  magistrates 
demanded  it. 

During  the  Civil  War,  Exeter  was  twice  besieged.  On 
the  second  occasion  it  was  surrendered  after  a  fortnight  to 
Sir  Thomas  Fairfax  in  1646.  His  mob  of  unruly  followers 
was  let  loose  in  the  Cathedral  Close,  and  carried  on  the 
usual  work  of  destruction.  The  cathedral,  of  course, 
received  their  first  attention,  and,  after  stripping  it  bare  of 
the  treasures  that  Love  had  lavished  on  it,  they  proceeded  in 
their  usual  systematic  manner  to  plunder  all  the  houses 
in  the  close.  The  bishop's  palace  was  deemed  the  most 
suitable  shelter  for  the  sheep  and  oxen,  no  doubt  the  great 
hall  became  the  slaughter-house.  They  delighted  in  con- 
trasts in  those  days.  When  the  soldiers  retired  from  Exeter, 
the  palace  was  sold  to  the  mayor  and  chamber  for  5^405,  and 
passed  into  the  hands  of  a  merchant,  who  converted  the 
building  into  a  sugar-refinery. 

At  the  Restoration,  Bishop  Gauden  was  appointed  to  the 
vacant  see,  and  on  his  entry  into  the  city  was  received  with 
great  pomp  and  ceremony.  His  palace  was,  of  course,  unin- 
habitable, being  still  in  the  hands  of  the  sugar-refiner,  and 
the  bishop  became  the  guest  of  a  widow  lady,  Mrs.  Alice 
Ford.  This  prelate  had  formerly  been  Dean  of  Booking,  and, 
owing  to  his  services  to  the  royal  family,  had  been  raised  to 
the  episcopate.  He  soon  discovered  it  was  but  an  empty 
honour,  and  that  the  dignity  of  the  mitre  and  crozier  could 
hardly  be  sustained  without  some  practical  means.  He 
accordingly    wrote    to    the    Lord    Chancellor,    Clarendon, 

E.E.P.  D 


34        ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

complaining  of  the  "distress,  infelicity,  and  horror"  of  such  a 
bishopric,  which  could  only  be  rendered  tolerable  by  an  extra 
;^500  a  year.  His  modest  request  was  evidently  not  granted. 
He  left  Exeter  in  1661,  and  was  eventually  translated  to 
Worcester.  The  sugar-refiner  continued  in  undisputed  posses- 
sion of  the  episcopal  palace  until  1662,  when  Bishop  Seth  Ward 
appeared  on  the  scenes.  His  biographer  tells  us  he  "retrieved 
the  palace  out  of  the  hands  of  the  sugar-baker,  repaired  it, 
and  made  it  habitable."  The  palace  remained  unaltered  until 
the  time  of  Bishop  Keppel,  who  spent  large  sums  on  improve- 
ments during  his  fifteen  years  episcopacy,  lasting  from  1762 
to  1777.  Succeeding  bishops  were  either  translated  to  other 
sees  or  lived  so  little  at  Exeter  that  when  Henry  Philpotts 
was  consecrated  in  183 1  he  found  the  palace  almost  unin- 
habitable. He  completely  restored  it,  rebuilding  a  consider- 
able portion.  The  palace  now  stands  close  to  the  cathedral 
on  the  same  side  as  the  chapter-house.  The  velvety  lawns 
and  fine-grown  trees  harmonize  well  with  the  sombre  grey 
buildings,  and  breathe  an  air  of  restfulness  far  removed  from 
all  the  tumults  of  modern  life. 

Ely 

In  1 133  Bishop  Nigel,  treasurer  to  Henry  I.,  built  a  castle 
at  Ely.  No  trace  of  it  can  now  be  seen,  and  even  the  site  is 
uncertain.  The  succeeding  bishops  all  took  a  leading  part 
in  State  affairs,  and  had  little  time  to  devote  to  their  diocese. 

The  castle  erected  by  Nigel  was  evidently  neglected,  for 
when  Hugh  de  Northvvode  became  bishop  in  1229  he  built 
an  episcopal  palace  "  of  stones,  covered  with  lead."  In 
1252  Hugh  de  Northwode  had  the  honour  of  entertaining 
Henry  III.  This  palace  has  also  completely  disappeared, 
and  there  is  no  record  of  its  destruction.     We  only  know 


INTRODUCTORY   CHAPTER  35 

that  Bishop  Alcock  in  i486  found  the  palace  in  a  ruinous 
state,  and  entirely  rebuilt  it.  His  stately  towers  survived 
the  storms  of  the  Civil  Wars,  and  are  still  standing,  as  well 
as  the  long  gallery  added  by  Bishop  Goodrich.  The  latter 
was  one  of  the  most  zealous  supporters  of  the  Protestant 
Church  during  the  reign  of  Henry  VIH.,  and  afterwards,  as 
chancellor  to  Edward  VI.,  affixed  the  great  seal  to  the  instru- 
ment declaring  Lady  Jane  Grey  the  rightful  heir  to  the 
crown.  However,  when  Queen  Mary  occupied  the  throne 
he  loyally  suited  his  conscience  to  the  altered  requirements, 
and  died  next  year,  still  Bishop  of  Ely. 

After  the  death  of  Bishop  Cox  the  see  was  kept  vacant  for 
eighteen  years,  during  which  time  the  revenues  went  to  swell 
Queen  Elizabeth's  exchequer.  The  palace  naturally  went  to 
rack  and  ruin,  and  was  restored  by  Bishop  Heton  in  1609. 
During  the  Civil  Wars,  Oliver  Cromwell  paid  a  visit  to  Ely, 
and,  marching  into  the  cathedral  without  uncovering  his 
head,  shouted  to  the  minister  in  the  pulpit  '*  to  leave  that 
foolery  and  come  down."  No  doubt  the  palace  was  declared 
"  public  property  "  and  was  thrown  open  to  the  Roundheads 
to  satisfy  their  insatiable  hunger  for  destruction. 

It  was  again  completely  rebuilt  by  Bishop  Keene  during 
his  episcopate  (1771 — 81).  He  pulled  down  all  that  remained, 
except  the  two  towers  and  the  long  gallery,  and  built  the 
present  palace.  Bishop  Woodford  improved  the  exterior  by 
altering  the  windows,  and  Lord  Alwyne  Compton  added  the 
present  dining-room.  In  the  gallery  is  a  curious  old  painting, 
one  of  the  most  interesting  relics  of  the  past,  supposed  at 
one  time  to  have  been  painted  in  the  eleventh  century.  This, 
however,  has  been  disproved,  although  it  no  doubt  dates 
from  the  sixteenth  century.  It  is  divided  into  forty  equal 
compartments,  each  containing  a  portrait  of  a  monk  and  an 

D   2 


36        ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

armed  knight.  Legend  says  it  commemorates  the  time 
when,  after  quelHng  Hereward  the  Wake's  insurrection, 
WiUiam  the  Conqueror  quartered  his  knights  on  the  monas- 
tery, each  monk  having  a  knight  as  his  guest.  These  guests 
so  endeared  themselves  to  the  monks  that  when  the  king 
recalled  them  to  put  down  another  rebellion,  the  monks 
bewailed  the  departure  of  these  "  dere  fellows,"  and  followed 
them  to  Haddenham  with  "  bowlings  fereful  to  be  heard, 
beating  their  breasts  as  voyde  of  all  hope." 

The  most  interesting  of  all  the  Ely  palaces  from  an  his- 
torical point  of  view  is  Ely  Place,  Holborn.  At  any  early 
date  the  bishops  had  a  house  in  the  Temple,  and  in  1290 
Bishop  Kirkeby  bequeathed  an  "  inn  "  or  town  house,  called 
"  Le  Bell,"  and  nine  cottages  in  Holborn  to  his  successors,  on 
condition  that  a  requiem  Mass  should  be  celebrated  on  the 
anniversary  of  his  death.  John  Hotham,  who  was  conse- 
crated in  1316,  added  to  this  property.  He  played  a  leading 
part  in  State  affairs  during  the  troublous  reign  of  Edward  IL, 
and  was  entrusted  with  the  Great  Seal  when  Edward  III. 
was  proclaimed  king  in  1327.  About  this  time  he  bought  a 
house  and  several  parcels  of  land  near  his  manor  in  Holborn 
in  the  suburb  of  London,  consisting  of  a  vineyard,  kitchen 
garden,  orchard,  and  enclosed  pasture,  all  of  which  he  settled 
on  the  see  of  Ely.  By  the  sixteenth  century  it  was  a  "  hand- 
some and  commodious  mansion,"  standing  in  twenty  acres  of 
ground,  with  the  chapel,  dedicated  to  St.  Etheldreda,  in  an 
adjoining  field.  The  beauty  and  seclusion  of  the  place 
attracted  the  notice  of  Sir  Christopher  Hatton,  who  asked 
Queen  Eli2abeth  to  obtain  the  lease  of  it  from  Bishop  Cox. 
He  was  loath  to  part  with  it,  even  temporarily ;  but  as  threats 
succeeded  entreaties  further  resistance  was  useless,  and  the 
palace  was  let  for  twenty-one  years  for  the  rent  of  one  red 


INTRODUCTORY   CHAPTER  37 

rose  at  midsummer,  and  the  grounds  for  ten  loads  of  hay 
and  ^10  yearly.  The  bishop  reserved  two  rooms  for  himself, 
as  well  as  free  access  through  the  gate-house,  and  the  right 
to  walk  in  the  gardens  and  gather  two  bushels  of  roses  each 
summer. 

As  soon  as  Hatton  was  in  possession  he  set  to  work 
to  improve  and  embellish  both  the  house  and  gardens, 
and  became  so  enamoured  of  the  place  that  the  prospect  of 
having  to  turn  out  after  twenty-one  years  was  unbearable. 
He  therefore  once  more  applied  to  his  royal  mistress  to 
obtain  a  perpetual  grant  of  the  property.  The  bishop 
replied  in  a  well-worded  Latin  epistle,  full  of  expressions 
of  undying  loyalty,  but  his  "fearful"  conscience  would 
never  permit  him  thus  to  rob  his  successors.  Queen 
Elizabeth's  answer  to  this  epistle  was  short  and  very 
much  to  the  point.  It  ran  as  follows :  "  Proud  prelate,  you 
know  what  you  were  before  I  made  you  what  you  are.  If 
you  do  not  instantly  comply — by  G — ,  I  will  unfrock  you." 
The  unfortunate  bishop  had  no  choice,  and,  sorely  against 
his  will,  a  compromise  was  effected.  The  place  was  mort- 
gaged to  the  queen,  and  by  her  to  Hatton,  for  ^iTijSoo — the 
sum  that  Hatton  had  spent  on  it. 

After  the  death  of  Bishop  Cox  the  bishopric  was  kept 
vacant  for  eighteen  years,  and  when  at  last  it  was  filled  by 
Bishop  Heton  the  revenues  were  so  much  reduced  that  it 
was  impossible  to  collect  the  necessary  funds  in  order  to 
redeem  the  estate.  And  so  the  heirs  of  Lord  Hatton  con- 
tinued in  undisputed  possession  until  the  time  of  Bishop 
Wren,  who  once  more  asserted  his  right  to  the  palace,  and 
entered  his  suit  at  the  Court  of  Requests.  The  money  being 
forthcoming,  his  claim  was  established,  and  Lady  Hatton 
began   pulling  up  her  choice  plants  and  fruits,  and  even  the 


38        ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

water-pipes,  preparatory  to  a  move.  Once  more  fate  inter- 
vened in  the  shape  of  the  Long  Parliament,  and  Wren  was 
given  a  free  lodging  in  the  Tower. 

During  these  years  of  imprisonment  his  thoughts  must  often 
have  wandered  to  that  palace  at  Holborn,  which  had  been 
snatched  from  him  at  the  moment  when  it  seemed  within  his 
grasp.  When  at  last  he  was  set  at  liberty  and  hastened  to  the 
place  that  had  cost  him  so  dear  it  was  hardly  recognizable ; 
the  beautiful  garden  was  built  over  with  small  houses,  the 
gate-house  and  part  of  the  main  building  had  entirely 
disappeared,  and  most  of  the  out-houses  demolished.  The 
bishop  was  obliged  to  enter  his  palace  by  a  back  door,  and  to 
drive  his  horses  through  the  great  hall.  The  quiet  of  the 
cloisters  was  disturbed  by  noisy  revellers  in  the  crypt  below, 
then  converted  into  a  drinking-tavern,  and  the  sound  of  their 
rude  voices  and  coarse  laughter  penetrated  even  to  the  sacred 
stillness  of  the  chapel  above.  The  work  of  destruction  was 
complete,  and,  worn  out  with  his  long  imprisonment,  the 
bishop  had  neither  the  energy  nor  the  means  to  attempt  any 
restoration.  Succeeding  bishops  tried  to  regain  possession. 
The  case  dragged  on,  enriching  the  lawyers  and  clerks,  but 
bringing  no  relief  to  the  unfortunate  bishops. 

Now  all  that  remains  of  this  sumptuous  palace,  which  had 
brought  little  but  misery  to  its  various  owners,  is  the  chapel 
of  St.  Etheldreda.     It  is  well  worth  a  visit. 

Turning  away  from  the  noise  and  bustle  of  Holborn  into  a 
quieter  by-street,  it  is  difficult  to  imagine  that  we  are  stand- 
ing on  the  site  of  a  garden,  where  once  a  bushel  of  roses  could 
be  gathered  in  one  summer.  The  little  chapel  is  so  crushed 
up  between  tall  smoke-grimed  buildings  that  it  could  easily  be 
passed  by  unnoticed.  The  entrance  at  the  side  takes  us  into 
all  that  remains  of  the  cloisters  ;  the  old  paving-stones  might 


INTRODUCTORY   CHAPTER  39 

well  be  the  same  that  were  once  trodden  by  so  many  bishops 
of  Ely.  A  few  yards  further  on  is  an  arched  entrance,  and  a 
flight  of  steep  steps  leads  us  down  into  the  crypt  below.  At 
first  we  can  see  nothing  but  the  red  lamp  burning  before 
the  altar,  and  a  hushed  sense  of  peace  steals  over  the  soul. 
It  seems  as  if  these  old,  old  walls  enclosed  Time  itself,  and 
eight  centuries  have  passed  without  leaving  any  trace. 
Perhaps  the  oaken  rafters  are  somewhat  blacker  and  the  old 
stones  not  quite  so  regular  as  when  they  were  first  laid  there. 
Our  thoughts  naturally  wander  back  to  the  days  when  these 
rafters  echoed  back  the  noisy  laughter  and  ribald  song  of  the 
drinking-tavern,and  these  stones  were  stained  with  the  dregs  of 
beer  and  wine  and  the  staggering  feet  of  the  drunken  revellers. 
But  that  has  passed,  and  the  crypt  has  been  restored  to  its 
original  purpose,  and  the  holy  stillness  of  a  Divine  Presence 
pervades  every  corner. 

Gloucester 

At  the  dissolution  of  the  monastery  at  Gloucester 
Henry  VIII.  installed  his  chaplain,  John  Wakeman,  as  bishop, 
granting  him  the  abbot's  house  for  his  episcopal  palace. 
This  house  covered  a  great  deal  of  ground,  and  was  more 
than  ordinarily  spacious.  The  great  hall  was  built  by  Abbot 
Thomas  Horton,  who  governed  the  monastery  from  1351  to 
1377.  The  year  after  his  death  the  king  held  his  Parliament 
in  this  great  hall.  Adjoining  it  was  the  "  guest  chamber," 
where  the  Privy  Council  sometimes  met.  It  is  described  as 
a  "  goodly  brave  place,"  and  "  so  swetly  keept  and  so  riclily 
furnyshed  "  that  it  was  called  the  king's  chamber. 

A  very  minute  description  of  the  palace  is  given  in  the 
grant  of  Henry  VIH.  It  is  full  of  mterest,  and  deserves  to 
be  quoted. 


40        ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

"  And  whereas  we  will  that  the  said  Bishop  of  Gloucester 
and  his  successors  be  honorably  endowed,  we  give  and  by  these 
presents  grant  to  the  same  bishop  all  that  our  hall  covered 
with  lead  commonly  called  the  '  leaden  hall,'  and  a  pantry 
and  a  buttery  together  with  a  kitchen  with  two  little  hoases 
for  storing  food,  and  a  small  court  with  a  certain  pond  or 
stev/  to  which  fresh  water  flows,  situated  and  being  at  the 
east  end  of  the  hall.  Also  a  great  chamber  in  which  the 
servants  of  the  late  abbot  were  wont  to  eat,  situated  and 
being  at  the  west  end  of  the  said  hall,  and  likewise  a  pantry, 
buttery,  and  underground  cellar,  with  a  certain  way  leading 
to  it,  on  the  south  side  of  the  same  great  chamber ;  also  a 
certain  court  or  waste  or  waste  place,  adjoining  the  same 
great  chamber.  Also  one  other  chamber,  commonly  called 
the  court  chamber,  with  three  other  bedchambers  built  over 
the  said  court  chamber.  Likewise  one  other  great  chamber 
in  which  the  late  abbot  was  wont  to  eat,  with  a  pantry,  a 
buttery,  and  an  underground  cellar  (subterraneam  officinam) 
on  the  south  end  of  the  same  chamber.  And  also  a  gallery  or 
walking-place,  and  a  bedchamber  on  the  south  part  of  said 
gallery,  with  three  bedchambers  together  constructed  on  the 
north  end  of  the  said  gallery.  Also  all  those  three  inner  bed- 
chambers with  a  middle  chamber,  a  chapel,  and  another  gallery 
adjoined  to  the  same  bedchamber  and  privy  to  the  late  abbot. 
Also  one  other  hall,  a  pantry,  a  buttery,  and  a  kitchen  and  two 
bedchambers  at  the  east  end  of  the  same  gallery.  Also  all  and 
singular  the  chambers,  houses,  buildings,  underground  cellars, 
and  other  offices  whatsoever,  situated  or  built  over  or  under 
the  said  halls,  chambers,  galleries,  and  all  other  and  singular 
premises.  Also  a  certain  garden,  which  extends  itself  before 
the  said  three  inner  bedchambers,  and  the  rest  of  the  build- 
ings privy  to  the  said  abbot.     And  also  all  the  messuages, 


INTRODUCTORY    CHAPTER  41 

dwellings,  houses,  edifices,  and  structures  with  the  land  and 
soil  of  the  same,  the  gardens,  orchards,  waste  places,  walls, 
and  all  other  hereditaments  whatsoever  known  by  the  name 
of  the  '  Abbottes  Lodgyng  '  situated  within  all  that  precinct, 
circuit,  and  court  called  the  '  Abbottes  Lodgyng.'  And  we 
will  that  the  said  messuages,  dwellings,  halls,  and  other  the 
premises  whatsoever  be  deemed,  named,  and  called  the  palace 
of  the  Bishop  of  Gloucester  and  his  successors." 

Bishop  Wakeman  was  succeeded  by  John  Hooper.  He 
had  formerly  been  a  White  Friar  at  Bristol.  After  the  Dis- 
solution he  went  abroad,  where,  freed  from  the  protecting 
walls  of  his  monastery,  he  had  not  the  strength  to  remain 
true  to  his  vows.  Wishing  naturally  to  justify  his  own 
weakness  he  went  to  the  other  extreme,  and  threw  all  the 
force  of  his  nature  into  the  Protestant  cause.  He  imbibed 
Calvinistic  doctrines,  and  returned  to  England  in  the  reign 
of  Edward  VI,  with  an  inveterate  hatred  of  all  "Papist 
ceremonies."  He  was  offered  the  Bishopric  of  Gloucester, 
but  flatly  refused  to  wear  the  episcopal  vestments  at  his 
consecration.  He  was  consequently  sent  to  the  Fleet  Prison 
to  think  things  over  quietly.  After  a  few  months'  reflection 
he  gave  in,  and  was  consecrated  in  the  obnoxious  garments 
in  1550.  He  is  described  as  obstinate  and  morose,  and  his 
dislike  for  Ridley  was  so  insurmountable  that  it  is  said  that 
"  when  his  episcopal  habit  was  half  worn  out  yet  his  anger 
to  Ridley  was  new  and  fresh  as  at  the  beginning."  Not  long 
after  his  consecration  he  resigned  his  see  to  Edward  VI., 
receiving  it  back  from  him  to  hold  "  during  the  king's  good 
pleasure."  In  Queen  Mary's  reign  he  was  once  more 
deprived.  One  cannot  help  admiring  the  way  the  obstinate 
old  Protestant  went  to  the  stake  rather  than  take  back  one 
word  of  his  opinion.     Perhaps  the  fires  purified  some  of  the 


42        ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

proud  spirit  of  the  man.  He  was  at  least  no  time-server, 
though  he  had  the  choice  of  retaining  the  bishopric  if  he 
returned  to  his  former  faith. 

We  hear  little  of  the  palace  till  the  time  of  Bishop  Ravis, 
who  was  consecrated  in  1604.  He  added  greatly  to  the 
comfort  of  the  house  by  making  several  conduits  to  bring  in 
water.  He  also  paved  it  throughout  and  rebuilt  a  great  deal 
of  it.  He  was  very  lavish  in  his  hospitality,  which  perhaps 
occasioned  his  translation  to  the  see  of  London.  During 
the  Commonwealth  the  see  was  vacant,  and  the  palace  sold 
to  Thomas  Hodges  for  £913. 

The  palace  was  considerably  improved  in  1735  by  Bishop 
Benson,  who  built  a  new  front  and  a  large  hall,  the  end  of 
which  was  lighted  by  a  beautiful  window.  He  also  added 
a  domestic  chapel.  In  1788,  during  the  episcopate  of  Dr. 
Halifax,  King  George  III.  and  his  queen  paid  a  visit  to 
Gloucester,  and  were  entertained  by  that  prelate.  A  small 
marble  tablet  was  put  up  over  the  fire-place  in  the  hall  to 
commemorate  the  occasion. 

Dr.  Beadon  made  many  judicious  changes  in  the  arrange- 
ment of  the  rooms,  adding  considerably  to  the  comfort  of 
the  house.  The  present  palace  was  built  in  1862,  and  very 
little  of  the  old  building  remains. 

Bristol 

The  see  of  Bristol  was  separated  from  that  of  Salisbury 
in  1542, and  raised  to  an  independent  bishopric.  Henry  VIII., 
according  to  his  usual  custom,  endowed  the  bishopric  with 
the  abbot's  lodging  and  some  of  the  possessions  formerly 
belonging  to  the  dissolved  monastery.  Paul  Bush  was  the 
first  bishop  installed,  and  according  to  some  doggerel  lines, 
he  was  "  the  first  prelate  that  Christiandom  ever  did  see,  a 


INTRODUCTORY    CHAPTER  43 

husband  to  a  Ladee."  He  and  his  "  ladee  "  took  up  their 
abode  in  the  abbot's  house,  where  they  spent  eleven  years. 
When  Queen  Mary  came  to  the  throne,  the  bishop  was  asked 
to  resign  either  his  diocese  or  his  wife.  He  chose  to  remain 
faithful  to  the  latter,  and  retired  from  Bristol.  His  wife 
died  soon  after,  and  the  wise  bishop,  finding  no  sacrifice 
necessary,  returned  to  his  former  faith,  and  received  the 
rectory  of  Winterbourne.  Here,  maybe,  he  wished  to  make 
amends  for  past  self-indulgence,  by  a  life  of  severe  penance ; 
and  tradition  says  his  fasts  were  so  rigorous  and  continual 
that  he  died  from  starvation.  The  next  bishop  of  any  note 
who  occupied  the  palace  was  Dr.  Fletcher,  in  the  reign  of 
Queen  Elizabeth.  He  was  essentially  a  shrewd  man  of 
business,  and  was  not  going  to  be  hurried  into  the  bishopric 
without  making  his  own  terms.  He  first  obtained  leave  to 
lease  out  the  revenues  to  various  courtiers,  which  he  did  to 
such  an  extent,  that  the  see  became  one  of  the  poorest. 
Perhaps  that  accounted  for  the  fact  that,  after  his  translation 
to  Worcester,  no  bishop  was  installed  for  four  years.  Having 
buried  his  first  wife,  he  took  to  himself  another,  which  he 
did  apparently  without  consulting  the  wishes  of  his  royal 
mistress.  She  was  not  slow  in  showing  her  displeasure ;  and 
so  loyal  and  devoted  a  subject  was  he  that  the  coldness  of 
her  looks  froze  him  completely.  He  died  quite  suddenly  in 
1596.  The  episcopal  palace  and  the  park  attached  to  it  were 
sold  to  Thomas  and  John  Clark  for  ;^26o  during  the  Rebellion. 
The  house  as  it  then  stood  was  large  and  rambling,  with  a 
great  deal  of  waste  space ;  it  opened  into  the  east  cloister. 
The  domestic  chapel  was  very  small,  only  fifteen  feet  by 
eleven,  with  a  good  deal  of  painted  glass.  Judging  from 
the  names  and  armorial  bearings  of  the  last  abbots  who 
occupied  the  house,  it   could  not  have  been  a  very  ancient 


44        ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

structure.  In  1831  the  original  episcopal  palace  was  attacked 
by  the  rioters,  and  burnt  to  the  ground.  Some  of  the 
blackened  ruins  can  still  be  seen  in  the  graveyard  on  the 
south  side  of  the  cathedral. 

Peterborough 

Peterborough  was  formerly  a  part  of  the  see  of  Lincoln. 
In  1541  the  monastery  of  Peterborough  was  surrendered  to 
Henry  VIII.  by  Abbot  John  Chambers,  when  the  town 
became  the  seat  of  a  new  diocese,  the  former  abbot  being 
installed  as  bishop.  This  monastery  escaped  the  fate  of  .0 
many  others,  perhaps  because  Catherine  of  Arragon  had 
found  a  last  resting-place  in  the  cathedral,  and  the  king 
wished  to  make  amends  after  death  for  his  treatment  of  her 
during  life.  Be  that  as  it  may,  the  abbot's  house  remained 
standing,  and  was  converted  into  the  episcopal  palace.  The 
building  existing  in  the  sixteenth  century  was  large  and  stately 
with  "  fair  vaults  and  goodly  cellars."  The  great  hall  was  one 
of  the  finest  in  England,  at  the  upper  end  high  up  above 
the  ground  were  three  thrones,  on  which  sat  three  figures, 
curiously  carved  in  wood,  and  adorned  with  paint  and  gilding. 
They  represented  the  founders  of  the  monastery,  and  bore 
the  following  inscription  : — 

"  Per  Peadam  primo  domus  hasc  fundatur  ab  imo, 
Post  per  Wolferum  stabat  possessio  rerum 
Fabit  Ethelraedus  frseternum  ponere  foedus." 

This  hall  was  the  scene  of  a  great  banquet  during  the 
funeral  of  Mary  Queen  of  Scots,  in  Peterborough  in  1586. 
Richard  Rowland  was  bishop  at  the  time,  and  we  are  told 
that  "  on  Monday  afternoon  came  to  Peterborough  all  the  lords 
and  ladies  and  other  assistants  appointed,  and  at  the  bishop's 


INTRODUCTORY   CHAPTER  45 

palace  was  prepared  a  great  supper  for  them,  where  all  at 
one  table  supped  in  the  great  hall,  being  hanged  with  black, 
where  was  a  state  set  on  the  right  side  thereof  of  purple 
velvet.  Upon  Tuesday  morning  the  chief  mourners,  lords  and 
ladies  and  other  assistants  being  ready,  about  ten  of  the  clock, 
they  marched  from  the  hall  of  the  bishop's  palace  "  to  the 
cathedral,  where  the  bishop  preached.  After  the  funeral  they 
departed  to  the  bishop's  house,  "  where  was  a  great  feast 
appointed  accordingl}'.  The  concourse  of  people  was  many 
thousands,  and  after  dinner  the  nobles  departed  everyone 
towards  his  own  home." 

The  next  occupant  of  the  palace  was  Thomas  Dove, 
chaplain  to  Queen  Elizabeth,  who  called  him  the  "  Dove 
with  the  silver  wings,"  on  account  of  his  venerable  appear- 
ance and  a  happy  knack  of  clothing  his  thoughts  in  silver 
words.  He  was  a  great  lover  of  hospitality,  and  during  his 
episcopate  the  great  hall  witnessed  many  a  noble  feast. 
He  kept  open  house,  and  did  his  duty  nobly  by  entertaining 
his  friends  and  bringing  up  a  numerous  family.  In  spite 
of  apparent  lavish  expenditure,  he  husbanded  his  resources 
so  well  that  his  children  had  no  cause  for  dissatisfaction. 
He  began  making  many  alterations  in  the  palace,  and 
obtained  leave  from  the  archbishop  to  demolish  the  monks' 
hall  as  well  as  the  abbot's  kitchen.  He  did  not,  however, 
live  to  replace  these  buildings. 

In  1640,  during  the  episcopate  of  John  Towers,  the  Com- 
mission for  draining  the  fens  was  held  at  Peterborough,  the 
commissioners  sitting  in  the  bishop's  great  hall. 

At  this  time  it  was  decided  by  Parliament  to  deprive 
bishops  of  their  vote.  A  measure  strongly  opposed  by 
Bishop  Towers.  A  protestation  was  drawn  up  by  twelve 
bishops  declaring  all  laws  null  and  void  that  were  passed 


46        ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

during  their  absence  from  the  House  of  Lords.  The  Bishop 
of  Peterborough,  with  the  other  eleven,  was  imprisoned  in  the 
Tower,  and  all  his  goods  confiscated.  There  he  remained 
for  four  or  five  months,  and  on  his  release  found  an  empty 
palace  awaiting  him.  It  was  impossible  to  settle  down  with 
any  degree  of  comfort,  his  peace  being  disturbed  by  alarming 
rumours  and  threats.  So  the  bare  palace  was  abandoned, 
and  the  bishop  fled  to  Oxford,  which  was  then  garrisoned  by 
the  king's  troops.  Here  again  tumult  and  bloodshed 
pursued  him.  Oxford  was  besieged,  and  surrendered  to 
Sir  Thomas  Fairfax,  and  the  bishop  again  sought  the  shelter 
of  his  own  roof.  His  health  was  shattered,  and  the  remain- 
ing years  of  his  life  were  spent  in  the  misery  of  an  incurable 
disease.     He  died  at  Peterborough  early  in  1648. 

Soon  after  his  death  the  palace  was  sold  to  those  who  had 
little  reverence  for  beauty  and  antiquity.  They  laid  their 
ruthless  hands  first  on  the  chapel,  and  having  successfully 
demolished  that,  turned  their  attention  to  the  palace.  The 
great  hall  was  wrecked ;  the  figures  of  the  three  founders, 
which  had  looked  down  on  many  a  gay  banquet  and  solemn 
council,  were  hurled  from  their  thrones  amongst  these 
beasts  of  prey,  whose  hunger  could  only  be  appeased  by 
what  was  fashioned  in  beauty  or  hallowed  by  age.  Having 
levelled  it  all  to  the  ground,  the  lead,  stone,  and  timber 
were  collected  in  heaps,  to  be  sold  to  any  who  cared  to 
carry  them  away. 

It  would  seem  sometimes  as  though  a  curse  rested  on  this 
work  of  destruction,  and  as  if  the  stones  consecrated  to  God's 
service  could  not,  with  impunity,  be  used  for  lesser  purposes. 
We  are  told  that  a  certain  merchant  bought  the  greater  part 
of  these  materials,  with  which  he  loaded  a  ship  and  set  sail  for 
Holland,  but  neither  the  crew  nor  the  cargo  was  ever  seen 


INTRODUCTORY   CHAPTER  47 

again — the  stones  and  lead  have  found  a  last  resting-place 
beyond  the  reach  of  desecrating  hands. 

The  palace  received  a  little  milder  treatment  than  many 
of  its  contemporaries,  and  part  of  the  original  building  is  still 
standing  on  the  south  side  of  the  western  part  of  the  cloister. 
The  old  gate-house  which  formerly  led  to  the  abbot's  house 
may  still  be  seen,  and  the  chamber  above,  known  as  the 
"knight's  chamber,"  is  said  to  be  the  work  of  Abbot  Godfrey 
de  Croyland  in  1319.  The  beautiful  vaulted  under-crypt 
dates  from  a  century  earlier.  The  palace  also  contains  two 
oriels  of  a  chamber  known  as  "heaven's  gate  chamber,"  built 
by  Abbot  Kirton  not  long  before  the  Dissolution.  In  the 
gardens  one  may  still  see  the  ruins  of  the  former  refectory. 

Oxford 

The  Bishopric  of  Oxford  was  another  of  those  founded  by 

Henry  VI II.,  who  fixed  it  in  the  first  place  at  Oseney.     Here 

stood  a  magnificent  abbey  of  Augustinians — one  of  the  richest 

and  most  beautiful  in  England.  When  the  abbot,  Robert  King, 

surrendered  it  to  the  king,  his  loyalty  was  rewarded  with  a 

bishop's  mitre,  and  he  continued  there  for  four  years  in  his 

double  character  of  bishop  and  abbot.     However,  the  fair 

monastery  with  all  its  treasures  was  too   rich  a   plum   for 

Henry  long  to  resist,  and  in  1546  it  was  finally  dissolved. 

Not  a  stone  now  remains  to  tell  of  its  former  splendour.     It 

being  necessary  to  provide  the  bishop  with  a  suitable  abode, 

he  was  installed  in  Gloucester  College.     He  did  not  long 

remain  there,  for  when  Edward  VI.  inspected  his  father's 

charter,  with  the  object  of  confirming  the  various  grants, 

Gloucester   Hall  was  omitted.       It  was  perhaps  after  this 

that    Bishop    King    inhabited    a    house    in    the    parish    oi 

St.  Aldates,  facing  Trill  Mill  stream.     He  must  have  spent 


48        ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

a  considerable  sum  on  the  decorations,  and  his  arms  were 
conspicuous  everywhere. 

King,  Hke  some  of  his  contemporaries,  had  an  adaptable 
conscience,  which  suited  itself  most  conveniently  to  all 
requirements.  He  was  evidently  a  man  with  one  purpose 
in  life — retaining  his  mitre — and  all  trifles,  such  as  con- 
science or  principle,  must  perforce  be  brushed  aside.  He 
certainly  succeeded  admirably,  becoming  a  zealous  Reformer 
under  Edward  VI.,  and  in  his  maturer  years,  when  Queen 
Mary  governed  the  land,  all  the  teaching  of  his  monastic 
days  revived,  and  he  was  once  more  a  Catholic.  Whether 
he  would  have  recovered  his  senses  in  the  Protestant  days  of 
good  Queen  Bess,  we  know  not,  for  he  never  lived  to  stand 
this  test ;  but  we  can  well  believe  that  a  man  of  his  marvel- 
lous breadth  and  loyalty,  would  have  risen  superior  to  all 
difficulties,  and  still  remained  Bishop  of  Oxford. 

Queen  Elizabeth  kept  the  see  vacant  for  forty-one  years, 
during  which  time  most  of  the  lands  formerly  granted  by 
Henry  VIII.  were  alienated — a  few,  including  Cuddesdon, 
being  given  in  exchange.  The  succeeding  bishops  appear 
never  to  have  had  a  fixed  abode.  They  were  wanderers  on  the 
face  of  the  earth,  at  times  occupying  some  vacant  parsonage 
in  their  diocese,  and  sometimes  renting  a  house  in  the  city 
of  Oxford.  It  was  not  till  John  Bancroft  was  raised  to  the 
bishopric  that  any  attempt  was  made  to  provide  a  per- 
manent dwelling.  He  looked  about  him  for  a  suitable  site, 
and  finally  chose  Cuddesdon.  This  village  is  five  miles  from 
Oxford,  and  has  already  been  mentioned  as  one  of  the  estates 
granted  to  the  see  by  Queen  Elizabeth  in  exchange  for  those 
alienated.  The  lease  of  the  parsonage  had  just  expired,  and 
the  parish  was  without  a  vicar.  Bishop  Bancroft  accord- 
ingly inducted  himself,  and  took  up  his  abode  in  the  vacant 


INTRODUCTORY   CHAPTER  49 

parsonage.  His  impoverished  revenues  were  augmented  by 
a  pension  of  ;^ioo  a  year,  granted  by  Charles  I.,  who  like- 
wise gave  him  leave  to  take  what  timber  he  liked  from  the 
royal  forests  of  Stowood  and  Shotover,  and  so  the  palace  was 
begun.  Archbishop  Laud  took  a  great  interest  in  the  new 
building,  and  tells  us  in  his  diary,  September  2,  1635  ;  "  I  was 
in  attendance  with  the  king  at  Woodstock,  and  went  from 
thence  to  Cuddesdon  to  see  the  house  which  Dr.  John  Ban- 
croft had  built  to  be  a  house  for  the  bishops  of  that  see  for 
ever,  having  built  that  house  at  my  persuasion."  Although 
he  spent  ;^3,500  on  the  new  palace,  which  was  a  considerable 
sum  in  those  days,  we  are  told  it  was  rather  commodious 
than  splendid. 

Dr.  Bancroft  did  not  spend  many  peaceful  years  there, 
for  in  1640  the  Long  Parliament  fixed  its  fascinating  gaze 
on  the  unfortunate  bishop  and  so  paralyzed  him  with  fears 
of  imprisonment  and  confiscation  that  he  withered  up  and 
died  with  little  or  no  sickness.  His  fears  must  have  had 
some  foundation,  for  the  Puritans  described  him  as  "  a  cor- 
rupt unpreaching  Popish  prelate."  The  palace  did  not  long 
survive  its  builder.  Colonel  Legge,  who  was  Governor  of 
Oxford,  knowing  that  the  property  of  the  "  Popish  prelate  " 
would  become  a  prey  to  the  Puritan  party,  anticipated  their 
work  of  destruction  by  burning  it  to  the  ground  himself,  and 
once  more  the  bishops  of  Oxford  had  no  fixed  residence. 
When  the  storms  had  somewhat  abated.  Dr.  Paul  collected 
materials  for  a  new  building,  but  got  no  further.  It  was 
Dr.  Fell  who  eventually,  "with  monies  out  of  his  own  purse," 
began  the  erection  of  a  new  palace  on  the  same  site  as  the 
old  one.  It  was  finished  about  1679,  and  remains  to  the 
present  day  with  very  little  alteration,  eyond  the  addition 
of  a  chapel  in  1846  by  Bishop  Wilb  force.  It  stands 
E.E.P.  "*■  E 


50        ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

surrounded  by  a  small  park,  and  is  an  imposing  mansion, 
though  with  little  to  distinguish  it  from  other  country 
houses. 

Having  given  this  brief  sketch  of  the  episcopal  palaces 
belonging  to  the  sees  founded  in  Saxon  and  Norman  times,  as 
well  as  those  at  the  Reformation,  it  now  only  remains  for 
us  to  speak  of  those  founded  in  recent  times.  The  present 
palaces  are  quite  modern,  with  no  historical  interest  attached 
to  them.  The  only  exception  is,  perhaps,  Southwell,  which 
deserves  a  few  words.  There  stood  formerly,  close  to  the 
cathedral,  the  ancient  palace  belonging  to  the  archbishops  of 
York,  begun  by  Bishop  Kempe,  who  governed  the  northern 
province  from  1425  to  1452.  It  was  completed  by  his 
successor,  William  Booth,  and  embellished  by  several 
succeeding  prelates.  The  buildings  formed  a  large  quadrangle 
with  gardens  and  a  path  on  the  south.  For  many  years  the 
building  was  in  a  ruinous  condition,  until  it  was  bought  by 
Dr.  Trollope  together  with  the  gardens  and  a  small  part  of 
the  park.  In  1882  he  restored  the  "great  chamber"  or 
smaller  hall,  which  formerly  adjoined  the  "  great  hall," 
panelling  it  with  oak,  and  putting  in  some  beautiful  stained 
glass  windows  filled  with  royal  arms. 

The  palace  was  restored  in  igo6 — 7  for  the  present  Bishop 
of  Southwell. 


t^t  ^dhu  of  Eamfie^p 


jL  LMOST  opposite  to  Westminster,  where  the  course 
/  ^  of  the  Thames  runs  due  north  and  south, 
J  ^  stands  Lambeth  Palace.  Seen  from  the  river  it 
appears  a  squat,  sombre  castle  of  mingled  dull 
red  brick  and  grey  stone,  the  dignity  of  age  rendering  it 
equally  aloof  from  the  surrounding  squalor  of  the  neighbouring 
slums,  and  from  the  solid  handsome  monotony  of  the  row  of 
buildings  constituting  St.  Thomas's  Hospital.  A  tram  passes 
along  the  road  which  divides  the  palace  from  the  river ; 
nearly  opposite  the  gateway,  on  the  site  of  the  old  horse- 
ferry,  Lambeth  Bridge  leads  across  to  the  wharves  on  the 
opposite  shore;  the  Thames,  rigidly  embanked,  is  the  highway 
now  only  for  coal  or  hay-barges,  small  boats,  and  steamers. 
Facing  the  river,  the  Lollards'  or  Water  Tower  rises  square, 
rough,  and  grey  against  the  enclosing  wall  of  the  palace.  The 
windows  are  few  and  so  inconspicuous  that  at  a  distance  it  has 
an  aspect  of  blankness.  A  little  further  back,  at  right  angles 
to  it,  extending  southward,  stands  the  great  hall,  while 
stretching  inland  behind  the  tower,  are  the  main  buildings  of 
the  palace.  The  red  castellated  gateway  faces  south.  It 
leads  into  a  thin,  narrow  grass  court,  bounded  on  the  north  by 
the  Lollards'  Tower,  and  lying  between  the  outer  wall  and 
the  great  hall,  now  the  library.  Immediately  to  the  right  of 
the  entrance,  beyond  an  archway  which  connects  the  library 
and  the  porter's  lodge,  lies  a  larger  grass  court  and  garden. 

E   2 


52        ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

The  oldest  part  of  the  palace  is  the  crypt  beneath 
the  chapel,  at  one  time  said  to  be  the  crypt  of  the 
collegiate  church,  which  was  begun  by  Archbishop  Baldwin, 
about  1 190,  and  was  pulled  down  again  by  the  Pope's 
command  in  iigg.  Though  this  is  now  held  to  be  incorrect, 
it  seems  not  unlikely  that  the  position  of  the  palace  was 
determined  by  the  destruction  of  the  church — site  and  materials 
being  thus  ready  to  hand. 

The  erection  of  this  church  at  Lambeth  had  been  suggested 
by  Richard  I.,  as  a  compromise  in  the  famous  quarrel 
between  Baldwin  and  the  monks  of  Christchurch,  Canterbury. 
Baldwin,  who  is  described  as  an  austere  melancholy  man, 
was  a  lover  of  learning  and  a  "  fervent  monk."  The 
magnificence  and  independence  of  the  monks  outraged  his 
conception  of  the  monastic  life,  and  he  planned  the  founda- 
tion of  a  college  of  secular  priests  at  Hackington,  near 
Canterbury,  which  should  be  a  centre  for  students  and 
scholars.  The  monks  of  Christchurch  believed  that  the 
archbishop  intended  to  supplant  their  house.  They  uprose 
in  indignation.  The  existence  of  such  a  college  encroached 
on  their  rights  and  privileges.  They  appealed  to  the  Pope, 
to  the  kings  of  England  and  France.  Finally,  Baldwin 
agreed  to  transfer  the  college  to  another  and  more  distant 
neighbourhood,  and  for  this  purpose  he  obtained  twenty-four 
acres  of  land  in  Lambeth  from  the  monks  of  St.  Andrew,  at 
Rochester,  who  at  that  time  were  lords  of  the  manor  of 
Lambeth,  giving  them  in  return  land  in  the  Isle  of  Grain  ; 
and  this  exchange  was  confirmed  by  the  king,  March  20, 
1 190.  Baldwin  laid  the  foundations  of  his  church,  and  then 
sailed  on  the  Crusade,  and  both  the  quarrel  and  the  building 
languished  during  his  absence.  He  died  in  the  camp  of  the 
Crusaders   in   that    same   year,    and    it    was    not    until    the 


THE    PALACE    OF    LAMBETH  53 

election  of  Hubert  Walter  to  the  archbishopric,  in  1193,  that 
the  dispute  was  resumed  with  renewed  bitterness.  Finally, 
in  1 199,  the  total  destruction  of  the  church  was  commanded 
by  Innocent  IH. 

It  was  while  the  quarrel  was  at  its  height  that  Archbishop 
Hubert  acquired  the  whole  of  Lambeth  Manor  from  the 
monks  of  St.  Andrew  in  exchange  for  that  of  Darenth  and 
the  Chapel  of  Helles,  in  Kent.  The  archbishops  appear  to 
have  constantly  occupied  the  manor-house  at  Lambeth 
while  it  still  belonged  to  the  Priory  of  Rochester,  and  it  may 
well  have  been,  even  then,  their  customary  residence  when 
they  wished  to  be  within  reach  of  London.  Probably  this 
house  was  insufficient  for  their  requirements  as  a  permanent 
dwelling-place,  for  it  is  within  the  next  few  years  that  the 
first  buildings  were  begun,  from  which  the  present  palace 
has  grown.  Hubert  Walter  himself  is  said  to  have  begun 
the  original  "  great  hall." 

At  that  time  Lambeth  was  a  village.  The  surrounding 
country  was  chiefly  meadow  and  marsh  land  intersected 
with  narrow  channels  of  water,  and  scantily  wooded.  Game 
of  all  sorts,  red  and  fallow  deer,  were  to  be  found  there,  but 
the  marshes  especially  were  haunted  by  wild  sea-fowl  and 
fen-fowl,  swans  and  ducks.  The  river  banks  were  low.  The 
water  then  flowed  close  under  the  palace  walls. 

Stephen  Langton  is  said  to  have  continued  the  building  ; 
but  it  is  Boniface  of  Savoy,  the  turbulent,  lawless  arch- 
bishop, who  with  his  own  hand  knocked  down  the  sub-prior 
of  St.  Bartholomew's  for  resisting  his  demands,  and  was 
pursued  by  a  wrathful  mob  to  the  doors  of  Lambeth,  saved 
only  from  hurt  by  the  coat  of  mail  that  he  wore  under  his 
robes — it  is  this  Boniface  who  has  the  credit  of  finishing 
the  great  hall  and  constructing  the  chapel.      Probably   he 


54        ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

did  much  more  than  this  ;  for  in  1262  he  obtained  a  bull 
from  Urban  IV.  permitting  him  to  rebuild  his  old  houses  at 
Lambeth  in  a  fit  place,  or  to  erect  new  ones. 

By  the  beginning  of  the  fourteenth  century  the  arch- 
bishop's manor-house  had  attained  considerable  dimensions, 
though  it  seems  to  have  been  in  continual  need  of  repair. 
The  purchase  of  tiles,  "  tile-pins,"  and  "  roof-nails,"  and  the 
payment  of  carpenters,  plasterers,  and  plumbers,  are  frequent 
items  in  the  accounts.  In  132 1  repairs  were  done  to  the 
walls  of  the  wardrobe  next  (ptxta)  the  lord's  chapel,  as  well 
as  in  the  lord's  chamber  itself,  in  the  chancellor's  room,  the 
room  next  the  hall,  the  great  chapel,  the  store-house,  the 
bake-house,  and  another  wardrobe.  The  hay-loft  and  the 
stable  and  the  walls  upon  the  Thames  were  also  put  in  order. 
At  this  date  a  fruit-garden  belonged  to  the  palace,  and  also 
a  "  great  "  and  a  "  little  "  garden,  and  the  account  includes 
a  list  of  the  seeds  bought  during  the  j^ear — amongst  others, 
cabbage,  cucumber,  hyssop  and  spinach. 

Stephen  Langton  succeeded  to  Archbishop  Hubert  in 
1205,  but  except  for  two  years  during  which  the  Great 
Charter  was  won  from  the  king,  he  lived  in  exile  until  the 
death  of  John.  He  returned  to  England  after  the  Treaty  of 
Lambeth  had  restored  peace  and  secured  the  departure  of 
the  French,  in  consequence  of  Hubert  de  Burgh's  victory 
over  the  French  galleys  commanded  by  Eustace  le  Moine, 
and  the  defeat  on  shore  of  Louis,  the  son  of  Philip  Augustus, 
by  the  Earl  Marshal.  The  Treaty  was  drawn  up  at  Lam- 
beth and  attested  by  the  Papal  Legate,  Henry  HI.,  and  Prince 
Louis,  whose  names  are  followed  by  those  of  Hubert  de 
Burgh,  the  justiciar,  and  William  Marshall,  Earl  of  Pem- 
broke. Amongst  the  names  of  the  great  nobles  occurs 
that  of  Falk  de  Breaute,  the  unscrupulous  foreign  adventurer, 


THE    PALACE    OF   LAMBETH  55 

from  whom  the  neighbouring  manor  of  Vauxhall  took  its 
name.  Falk,  however,  appears  to  have  been  in  no  hiirry  to 
ca.Try  out  his  part  in  the  agreement,  for  the  king  wrote  to 
him  from  Lambeth  in  the  following  month,  commanding 
him  to  release,  in  accordance  with  the  terms  of  the  Treaty, 
Osbert,  the  son  of  Nigel,  whom  he  was  still  keeping 
captive. 

In  1231  Henry  HI.  spent  Christmas  at  Lambeth,  Hubert 
de  Burgh  providing  all  things  necessary  for  the  festivities, 
and  in  the  following  year  the  king  held  a  council  there. 
Councils  of  the  clergy  and  convocations  of  the  Province  of 
Canterbury  were  held  in  the  great  hall.  Aids  and  subsidies 
were  voted  to  the  king  at  these  assemblies,  and  matters  of 
Church  government  were  there  treated,  often  in  defiance  of 
the  royal  claims.  In  1281,  in  a  council  at  Lambeth, 
Archbishop  Peckham  proposed  to  confine  suits  on  patronage 
to  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction,  and  to  prevent  the  royal  courts 
from  interfering  in  cases  concerning  the  chattels  of  the 
spiritualty.  Before  they  had  assembled,  however,  Edward  I. 
wrote  to  the  archbishop  and  clergy  reminding  them  of  their 
oaths  of  fealty,  and  warning  them,  on  pain  of  losing  the 
temporalities  they  held  from  him,  to  do  nothing  to  prejudice 
the  royal  dignity.  At  the  same  time  he  deputed  four  laymen 
to  be  present  in  order  to  protest  against  anything  they 
judged  contrary  to  the  interests  of  the  Crown,  and  in  the 
end  Peckham  had  to  give  in. 

In  1408  all  the  members  of  the  convocation,  and  many 
others  "  eminent  in  every  branch  of  literature,"  were  enter- 
tained at  Lambeth  by  Archbishop  Arundel  "  with  elegance 
and  great  profusion  of  viands."  It  was  also  in  the  great 
hall  that  the  consecration  banquets  took  place  at  the  cost  of 
the    newly  created  bishop  :    the  most   famous  for  splendour 


56        ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL   PALACES 

being  that  of  William  of  Wykeham,  who,  though  consecrated 
at  St.  Paul's,  held  the  festivities  at  Lambeth. 

In  1345,  John  de  Montfort,  Duke  of  Brittany,  did  homage 
to  Edward  III.  in  the  archbishop's  palace  of  Lambeth,  and 
it  is  related  that  on  May  20,  the  Friday  in  the  week  of 
Pentecost,  in  the  presence  of  the  archbishop  John  Stratford, 
of  Robert  de  Sadington  the  chancellor,  William  de  Adding- 
ton  the  treasurer,  of  Bartholomew  de  Burghersh,  John  de 
St.  Pol  and  John  Darcy  keeper  of  the  rolls  of  Chancery, 
and  of  many  other  nobles,  he  addressed  the  king  in  these 
words :  "  My  lord,  I  acknowledge  you  to  be  the  rightful 
King  of  France,  and  I  do  homage  to  you  as  my  liege  lord  and 
the  rightful  King  of  France  for  the  Duchy  of  Brittany,  which 
I  claim  to  hold  from  you,  my  lord,  and  I  become  your  liege 
man  in  life  and  member,  and  to  keep  faith  in  life  and  death 
against  all  people."  Shortly  after  this,  Edward  III.  went 
himself  to  Brittany  to  uphold  his  "  liege  man's "  cause 
against  Charles  de  Blois,  whose  claims  were  supported  by 
the  King  of  France. 

Many  of  the  archbishops  of  Canterbury  were  lord  chan- 
cellors; amongst  whom  were  Thomas  Becket,  Hubert 
Walter,  Simon  Sudbury,  and  William  Warham,  while  several 
have  filled  the  office  of  lord  treasurer.  That  of  justiciar 
was  held  by  Radulphus  at  the  beginning,  and  by  Hubert 
Walter  at  the  end  of  the  twelfth  century.  There  are  several 
allusions  to  the  presence  of  the  Great  Seal  at  Lambeth.  On 
one  occasion,  "  after  the  sealing,"  it  was  left  with  Walter 
Reynolds,  archbishop-elect,  at  his  manor  of  Lambeth  "  under 
the  seals  of  Adam  de  Osgodeby,  Robert  de  Bardelby,  and 
William  de  Ayremynn,"  and  the  next  day  the  archbishop 
took  it  to  the  king  at  Shene.  Again,  on  December  8,  1339, 
it  was  brought  in  a  bag  at  sunrise  to  Lambeth  by  Sir  John 


THE    PALACE    OF    LAMBETH  57 

de  Wodehouse  and  Sir  Gilbert  de  Kitchill,  steward  of  the 
household  to  the  Bishop  of  London,  who  had  died  that 
night,  and  was  delivered  to  Archbishop  John  Stratford,  while 
in  the  following  year  the  king  gave  the  seal  to  the  same 
archbishop,  who  took  it  to  Lambeth  "  and  caused  charters, 
letters  patent,  and  writs  to  be  sealed  therewith  on  the 
morrow." 

In  1378,  John  Wycliffe  was  summoned  from  Oxford  to 
Lambeth  to  answer  for  his  doctrine  before  Archbishop 
Sudbury.  On  learning  of  this,  Joan,  the  widow  of  the 
Black  Prince  and  mother  of  the  king,  sent  to  the  archbishop 
bidding  him  not  to  pass  sentence  upon  the  preacher.  Wycliffe, 
however,  obeyed  the  summons,  and  appeared  on  trial  in 
Lambeth  Chapel,  but  the  citizens  of  London  forced  their 
way  in,  and  interrupted  the  proceedings.  Archbishop 
Sudbury,  gentle  and  well-meaning,  but  unable  to  grapple 
with  the  situation  from  either  point  of  view,  incurred  both 
the  resentment  of  the  people  and  the  disapprobation  of 
the  clergy.  To  the  first,  he  represented  the  opposition  to 
Wycliffe ;  to  the  other,  his  actions  appeared  half-hearted 
and  lacking  in  conviction. 

The  feeling  on  both  sides  was  fierce,  and  the  spirit  of 
angry  criticism,  encouraged  by  Lollardry,  probably  gave  an 
added  impulse  to  the  peasants'  revolt  under  Wat  Tyler  and 
Jack  Straw.  But  it  was  as  lord  chancellor,  rather  than  as 
the  antagonist  of  the  Lollards,  that  the  archbishop  was  an 
object  of  hatred  and  distrust  to  the  insurgents.  A  contem- 
porary poem  of  alternate  English  and  Latin  lines  describes 
the  rise  of  this  ragged  army  in  Kent  and  their  progress 
towards  London,  brandishing  weapons  and  attacking  the 
manor-houses  that  lay  in  their  path.  On  the  night  of  the 
13th  of  June,   1381,  a  detachment   of  the   rebels   who  were 


58        ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL   PALACES 

camping  on  Blackheath,  marched  to  Lambeth  Palace,  sacked 
and  set  fire  to  it,  burning  all  the  goods  and  books  they 
could  lay  hands  on.  The  archbishop  was  in  the  Tower  with 
the  young  king,  and  two  days  later,  while  Richard  II.  was 
treating  with  the  rebels  at  Mile  End,  Wat  Tyler  and  a  band 
of  his  followers  made  their  way  to  the  Tower,  and  with  a 
show  of  boisterous  friendliness  to  the  guard  they  pushed  in. 
They  found  the  archbishop  in  the  chapel,  who  faced  them 
unflinching,  replying  to  their  outcry :  "  Here  am  I,  your 
archbishop,  and  no  traitor  or  spoiler."  The  rebels  seized 
him,  dragged  him  out  on  to  Tower  Hill,  and  there  beheaded 
him. 

Sudbury's  successor,  Archbishop  Courtney,  who  was  a 
man  of  much  greater  determination,  showed  himself  uncom- 
promising in  his  dealings  with  Lollardry,  and  in  June,  1382, 
he  summoned  to  Lambeth  the  chancellor  himself,  Dr.  Robert 
Rygge,  for  favouring  Wycliffe.  Not  only  had  Dr.  Rygge 
permitted  Wycliffe  to  preach,  but  he  had  been  present  at 
the  sermon,  and  had  shown  himself  in  friendly  conversation 
with  the  preacher  afterwards.  The  chancellor  acknowledged 
his  fault,  asking  for  pardon  on  his  knees,  and  he  was  forgiven 
at  the  intercession  of  William  of  Wykeham. 

The  Water  Tower  was  supposed  to  have  served  as  a  prison 
for  the  Lollards,  and  even  now  is  generally  known  as  the 
Lollards'  Tower,  while  the  wooden  pillar  in  the  centre  of 
the  large  room  of  the  ground  floor  used  to  be  pointed  out  as 
a  "  whipping-post  "  for  heretics.  There  is,  however,  no  truth 
in  this.  The  pillar  was  put  up  to  support  the  middle  beam 
of  the  ceiling,  about  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century  ; 
and,  though  the  archbishops  had  a  prison  in  their  palace, 
there  is  no  evidence  that  the  Lollards  were  ever  shut  up  there. 

The  tower  was  erected    by   Archbishop  Chichele,  at  the 


IIknkv  (  iiic  iii;i  !■:,   .\k<  ii  nisnoi'  i>i'  ('.\ni  i-.Kisrm'. 

From  l/u-  ■..;,i,/o:i'  in  .1//  S.w/s   CoZ/iX,;  Oa/.u:,. 


THE    PALACE    OF    LAMBETH  59 

west  entrance  of  the  chapel  on  the  site  of  an  older  building 
which  was  pulled  down  to  make  room  for  it.  The  turret- 
chamber  and  winding-stair,  which  are  practically  a  part  of 
Chichele's  tower,  are  considered  to  be  of  a  far  earlier  date. 
The  stair  is  of  wood,  originally  of  oak,  but  now  repaired 
with  deal,  and  mounts  round  and  round  up  to  a  small  square 
room  with  double  doors.  The  last  few  steps  are  very  dark 
and  steep,  and  very  narrow.  The  room  is  dimly  lighted  by 
two  small  windows  facing  north  and  west  ;  iron  rings  are 
fastened  in  a  line  round  the  grey  walls,  to  which  the  prisoners 
used  to  be  chained,  and  the  stonework  is  cut  with  names  and 
brief  ejaculatory  prayers.  A  great  open  fire-place  on  the 
north  wall  faces  the  doorway. 

The  items  of  expenditure  for  the  building  of  the  Water 
Tower  are  entered  in  the  bailiffs  account  for  1435.  Accord- 
ing to  this,  the  pulling  down  of  the  old  stone  walls  and  the 
digging  of  the  new  foundations  took  five  days.  Rag-stone 
was  procured  from  Kent,  and  all  materials  were  brought  by 
boat,  including  iron  bars  for  the  windows,  window-stones, 
paving-tiles,  and  "  ostrycch  bord,  called  waynscot  "  ;  the  cost 
of  carriage  being  added  to  the  price  in  each  case.  One 
shilling  a  day  for  eight  days  was  paid  to  the  glass-maker 
from  whom  the  windows  were  bought,  and  who  put 
them  in. 

On  the  north  side  of  the  "  post-room"  a  door  led  to  the 
river-stairs,  from  which  the  archbishops  entered  their  barges. 
This  was  probably  a  rather  more  private  exit  from  the 
palace  than  the  landing-stage,  or  "bridge  "  as  it  is  called  in  the 
documents,  which  had  been  built  in  1424-5,  at  the  palace 
entrance.  This  landing-stage  and  another  "  bridge  "  on  the 
shore  of  the  Thames  were  both  mended  in  the  following 
year.     About    this    time    a    water-gate   and  liood-gate  were 


6o        ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

repaired,  and  work  was  needed  in  the  cloisters,  the  ewery, 
the  seneschal's  room,  and  the  audience  chamber. 

Lambeth  Palace  suffered  considerably  during  the  Wars  of 
the  Roses  ;  and  when  John  Morton,  Bishop  of  Ely,  was  made 
archbishop  in  i486,  the  buildings  were  falling  into  serious 
disrepair,  Morton,  who  had  been  imprisoned  by  Richard  III., 
had  conceived  the  plan  of  uniting  the  York  and  Lancastrian 
parties  by  the  marriage  of  Henry  Tudor  and  Elizabeth  of 
York,  and  after  the  accession  of  Henry  VI I.  he  became  the 
king's  chief  minister.  His  name  is  associated  with  a  trick 
of  extorting  money,  which  was  known  as  Morton's  fork  or 
crutch,  and  by  which  he  helped  to  replenish  the  empty 
treasury.  To  those  who  lived  lavishly,  he  pointed  out  that 
if  they  could  afford  to  spend  so  much  they  could  afford  to  be 
generous  to  the  king ;  to  those  who  made  no  display,  he 
urged  that  so  much  economy  represented  so  much  saving, 
and  they,  too,  had  no  excuse  for  not  contributing  to  the 
exchequer  with  an  open  hand. 

Archbishop  Morton,  who  was  afterwards  made  also  a 
cardinal,  besides  repairing  the  palace,  built  its  present 
gateway  which  stands  at  right  angles  to  the  old  parish 
church  of  St.  Mary.  In  the  centre  is  a  large  pointed  arched 
doorway,  and  beside  it  a  small  one,  while  on  either  hand 
rise  massive  towers  of  red  brick.  Rooms  in  these  were 
sometimes  used  as  prisons  or  places  of  temporary  custody, 
but  the  first  floor  of  the  western  tower  is  said  to  have  been 
Cardinal  Morton's  sitting-room. 

Sir  Thomas  More,  as  a  child,  was  taken  into  the  cardinal's 
household,  and  appears  to  have  been  a  boy  of  high  spirits 
as  well  as  of  unusual  intelligence.  "  Though  he  was  young, 
yet  he  would  at  Christmassuddenly  sometimes  step  in  among 
the  players,  and,  never  studying  the  matter,  make  a  part  of 


THE    PALACE   OF    LAMBETH  6i 


his  own  there  presently  among  them,  which  gave  the  audience 
more  sport  than  all  the  other  performers."  The  cardinal, 
who  afterwards  sent  More  to  Oxford,  delighted  "  in  his  wit 
and  towardness,"  and  would  point  him  out  to  the  nobles,  who 
from  time  to  time  dined  at  the  palace,  saying :  "  This  child 
here  waiting  at  the  table,  whosoever  shall  live  to  see  it, 
will  prove  a  marvellous  man."  Sir  Thomas  More  recipro- 
cated his  admiration,  and  described  him  afterwards  as  a  man 
whose  "conversation  was  easy,  but  serious  and  grave,"  and 
who  was  "  eminently  skilful  in  the  law,  had  a  vast  under- 
standing, and  a  prodigious  memory."  Bacon,  however, 
though  acknowledging  that  Morton  was  wise  and  eloquent, 
calls  him  harsh  and  haughty,  "  much  accepted  of  the  king, 
but  envied  by  the  nobility  and  hated  of  the  people." 

From  1503  to  1533  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  was 
William  Warham,  the  kindly  humorous  lover  of  learning, 
the  patron  of  all  scholars  in  general  and  of  Erasmus  in 
particular.  He  was  so  delighted  with  the  "  Adagia "  of 
Erasmus  that  Lord  Mountjoy,  who  had  lent  it  him,  could 
not  get  it  back  from  him,  and  the  archbishop  sent  ;^5  to  its 
author  for  his  journey  to  England.  The  first  meeting, 
however,  between  the  archbishop  and  the  scholar  was  not 
altogether  promising.  It  occurred  during  the  second  visit 
of  Erasmus  to  England,  1505-6.  He  had  lately  translated 
the  "  Hecuba  "  of  Euripides,  and  "  by  the  advice  of  erudite 
friends,  especially  William  Grocyn,  "  he  presented  the  volume 
to  Warham.  He  and  Grocyn  went  together  to  Lambeth 
Palace,  where  he  describes  being  received  by  the  archbishop 
before  dinner,  "  with  few  words,  being  myself  by  no  means 
a  talkative  or  ceremonious  person  ;  and  again  after  dinner,  as 
he  also  was  a  man  of  unaffected  manners,  we  had  a  short 
conversation  together,  after  which  he  dismissed  me  with  an 


62        ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

honorary  present  which  he  gave  me  when  we  were  alone 
together,  according  to  a  custom  he  had,  to  avoid  putting  the 
receiver  to  shame  or  creating  a  jealousy  against  him." 
Erasmus,  however,  was  disappointed  in  the  amount  of  the 
gift,  which  he  considered  an  insufficient  recognition  of  his 
work.  As  he  and  Grocyn  were  returning  from  Lambeth  by 
boat,  "  as  is  usual  there,"  Grocyn  asked  how  much  he  had 
received.  Erasmus  replied  by  naming  in  jest  a  large  sum, 
and  Grocyn  laughed.  Whereupon  Erasmus  inquired 
whether  "he  thought  the  prelate  not  generous  enough  to 
give  so  much  or  not  rich  enough  to  afford  it,  or  that  the 
work  was  not  worthy  of  a  munificent  present?"  Finally, 
having  revealed  the  real  amount  of  the  present  and  per- 
sistently asking  the  possible  reason  of  its  meagreness,  he 
received  the  reply  that  the  archbishop's  generosity  had  been 
checked  by  the  suspicion  that  the  book  had  already  been 
dedicated  elsewhere.  "  Surprised  at  such  a  speech,  I  asked 
how  that  suspicion  had  come  into  his  mind,  and  Grocyn 
said  with  a  smile,  but  of  a  sardonic  kind,  '  Because  that  is 
the  way  with  you  people.'  " 

In  spite  of  this  beginning,  a  warm  and  lasting  friendship 
grew  up  between  Erasmus  and  Warham,  who  proved  a 
generous  patron,  and  Erasmus  spoke  of  him  in  terms  of  real 
affection,  admiration,  and  gratitude.  "  Happy  was  I  to  find 
such  a  Maecenas.  .  .  .  All  who  have  gathered  good  from  my 
writings  must  thank  Archbishop  Warham,"  he  wrote  on  one 
occasion,  and  again  :  "  The  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  did  all 
for  me  that  was  possible.  He  is  one  of  the  best  of  men  and 
an  honour  to  the  realm  ;  wise,  judicious,  learned  above  all 
his  contemporaries,  and  so  modest  that  he  is  unconscious  of 
his  superiority.  Under  a  quiet  manner,  he  is  witty,  energetic, 
and  laborious." 


William  Warha.m,  Ariiiulshoi'  y)v  Can  ikkiurv. 

From  a  />i''tiirc  in  thf  possession  o/  Lord  J'lii/on. 


THE    PALACE    OF    LAMBETH  63 

Warham  died  of  grief  at  the  separation  of  the  Enghsh 
Church  from  Rome  and  the  king's  claim  to  supremacy.  He 
had  been  frugal  in  his  daily  life,  caring  nothing  for  splendour 
and  amusements ;  but  he  had  been  open-handed  to  others, 
and  at  his  death  he  was  so  poor  that  there  was  barely  enough 
to  pay  for  his  funeral.  His  portrait  by  Holbein  hangs  in  the 
old   guard-room  at  Lambeth,  now  the   dining-room. 

Two  sets  of  domestic  regulations  for  Lambeth  Palace, 
which  were  written  in  the  middle  of  this  century,  give  a 
detailed  account  of  the  archbishop's  establishment.  These 
are  the  statutes  of  Cranmer's  household — part  of  which, 
however,  were  drawn  up  after  Cranmer — and  the  statutes  for 
the  household  of  Archbishop  Parker.  The  arrangement  of  the 
offices  was  no  doubt  the  result  of  a  gradual  growth,  and  had 
been  much  the  same  for  many  years  before. 

All  the  gentlemen  and  yeomen  of  the  household  were 
under  the  control  of  the  steward,  the  treasurer,  and  comp- 
troller, and  these  "head  officers"  were  expected  to  meet  in 
the  counting-house  two  or  three  times  a  week,  "to  take 
orders  for  the  lord's  service,  and  to  redress  faults  and  dis- 
orders." The  clerk  of  the  kitchen,  who  kept  the  key  of  the 
counting-house,  was  present  at  these  meetings,  and  entered 
in  "a  great  book  or  ledger"  all  the  doings  and  decisions  of 
the  head  officers,  while  a  yeoman  bearing  a  white  wand, 
stood  in  waiting  at  the  door,  in  readiness  to  go  on  errands 
at  their  bidding.  Every  one  who  was  engaged  to  serve  the 
archbishop  was  first  taken  to  the  counting-house,  and  there 
the  rules  were  read  to  him,  after  which  he  took  an  oath  to 
serve  faithfully ;  and  his  name,  the  day,  and  the  year  were 
entered  in  a  book. 

The  household  was  divided  into  a  great  number  of  depart- 
ments:  consisting  of  the  bake-house,  pantry,  cellar,  buttery, 


64        ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

ewery  and  "  chaundry,"  the  spicery,  laundry,  almery,  kitchen, 
wardrobe,  and  stable.  Besides  these  the  palace  had  its  own 
millers  and  butchers. 

For  the  archbishop's  personal  service,  there  were  the 
gentlemen  ushers  of  the  chamber  and  the  yeomen  under 
them.  Of  these  one  gentleman  and  four  yeomen  in 
Cranmer's  time,  and  three  gentlemen  under  Archbishop 
Parker,  were  expected  to  be  daily  in  the  great  chamber 
during  a  week  of  attendance  from  between  six  and  seven  in 
the  morning  till  nine  at  night.  At  the  end  of  each  week  the 
gentleman  usher,  who  had  last  served,  handed  in  an  account 
to  the  steward  of  those  who  had  been  in  attendance  and  how 
they  had  behaved  ;  and  on  every  Monday  morning  the  list  of 
those  who  were  to  replace  them  in  the  coming  week,  and 
what  each  one  was  to  do,  was  fastened  up  on  the  "  bark  side 
of  the  great  chamber  doore  to  be  scene  of  every  man,  that 
none  could  plead  ignorance  of  his  charge."  It  was  the 
business  of  the  ushers  to  order  the  officers  to  prepare  for  my 
lord's  dinner,  and  to  look  after  the  details  of  its  service,  to 
have  a  fire  lit  in  the  archbishop's  room,  and  to  see  that  torches 
and  lights  were  there  when  required.  It  also  fell  to  them  to 
receive  guests,  and  to  take  care  that  the  guest-rooms  "  be 
made  cleane,  every  man  after  his  degree,  and  that  they  lack 
neither  beere,  ale,  wyne,  nor  fyer  and  candles  in  time  of  the 
yere."  If  the  visitor  were  "a  man  of  worship,"  then  "a 
cubbord  clothe,  a  bason  and  an  ewer,  waxe  and  a  towell  " 
were  also  to  be  provided.  Strangers  were  to  be  served  at 
meals  according  to  their  condition  in  life ;  a  yeoman  with  the 
yeomen,  near  the  door  of  the  hall,  and  a  gentleman  with  the 
gentlemen,  but  if  there  were  many  guests  they  were  to  sit 
at  one  table.  During  the  hours  of  prayer,  and  of  the 
archbishop's    dinner   the    great   gates    of  the   palace   were 


THE    PALACE    OF    LAMBETH  65 

closed,  and  no  stranger  was  admitted  until  the  plate  had 
been  put  away.  However,  if  anyone  "  of  honestie  "  should 
come  at  such  times,  he  was  put  to  wait  in  the  porter's  lodge, 
and  the  person  he  wished  to  see  was  sent  for ;  while  should 
he  have  asked  for  the  archbishop  himself  one  of  the  head 
officers  was  to  be  informed. 

The  archbishop's  dinner  was  an  imposing  ceremony,  and 
the  more  lavish  the  display  and  the  hospitality,  the  more 
honourable  was  it  accounted  to  him.  A  hint  of  stinginess 
in  housekeeping  was  a  grave  accusation.  It  so  happened 
that  a  report  of  meanness  had  been  circulated  at  the  Court 
against  Cranmer,  and  one  day  as  Henry  VHI.  was  going  to 
dinner  he  called  Sir  Thomas  Seymour,  who  had  been  most 
active  in  spreading  the  accusation  against  the  archbishop, 
and  sent  him  to  Lambeth  on  a  message.  On  arriving  at 
the  palace  the  porter  took  him  into  the  hall,  "and  it  chanced 
that  the  hall  was  set  to  dinner.  And  when  he  was  at  the 
skreen  and  perceived  the  hall  furnished  with  three  principal 
messes,  besides  the  rest  of  the  tables  thoroughly  set,  having 
a  guilty  conscience,  recoiled  back,  and  would  have  gone  into 
my  lord  by  the  chapel  way."  On  his  return  to  the  king,  he 
knelt  down  and  asked  for  pardon. 

**  What  is  the  matter  ?  "  said  the  king. 
"I  do  remember,"  said  Mr.  Seymour,  "that  I  told  your 
Highness  that  my  lord  of  Canterbury  kept  no  hospitality 
correspondent  to  his  dignity,  and  now  I  perceive  that  I  did 
abuse  your  Highness  with  an  untruth.  For  besides  your 
Grace's  house,  I  think  he  be  not  in  the  realm  of  none  estate 
or  degree  that  hath  such  a  hall  furnished  or  fareth  more 
honourably  at  his  own  table." 

"  Ah !  "  said  the  king, "  have  you  spied  your  own  fault  now." 
Nevertheless,  Cranmer  had  made  an  attempt  to  curtail  the 
E.E.P.  F 


66        ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

extravagant  living  of  the  clergy,  and,  together  with  a  council 
of  other  prelates,  he  drew  up  rules  for  moderating  their  daily 
fare.  According  to  these,  an  archbishop  should  not  have 
more  than  six  different  kinds  of  meat  at  his  table,  or  as  many 
dishes  of  fish  on  days  of  abstinence  ;  at  the  second  course,  of 
such  things  as  custards,  tarts,  fritters,  cheese,  apples,  pears, 
etc.,  four  dishes  were  allowed  him.  "  Of  the  greater  fish  or 
fowl — as  cranes,  swans,  turkeys,  haddocks,  pike,  tench — there 
should  be  but  one  in  a  dish ;  of  lesser  sorts  than  they — as 
capons,  pheasants,  conies,  wood-cocks — but  two."  Of  still 
smaller  birds,  an  archbishop  could  have  three  partridges  to  a 
dish,  six  blackbirds,  while  of  larks  the  number  was  not  to 
exceed  twelve.  Anything  that  was  saved  by  these  retrench- 
ments was  to  be  spent  in  "  plain  meat  "  for  the  poor.  The 
dishes  of  the  rest  of  the  clergy  were  restricted  according  to 
their  degree,  but  scarcely  anyone  seems  to  have  observed  the 
new  regulations,  and  six  months  later  they  were  forgotten 
again. 

The  archbishop's  dinner  was  cooked  separately  from  that 
of  the  household,  and  the  cooks  were  specially  enjoined  "to 
keepe  my  lord's  privie  kitchen  for  his  owne  mouth."  The 
table  was  spread  with  all  sorts  of  plate,  "  chargers,  dishes, 
platters,  pottagers,  and  sawcers,"  which  after  dinner  were 
conveyed  by  a  "yeoman  of  the  squillery  "to  the  jewel-house 
or  wardrobe,  except  when  supper  also  was  to  be  ceremonious. 
The  gentleman  usher  chose  the  cup-bearer,  carver,  and  server 
and  the  waiters,  and  these  accompanied  the  archbishop  when 
he  dined  away  from  home.  The  duties  of  the  gentleman 
usher  are  given  in  greater  detail  in  Parker's  **  Statutes,"  where 
it  is  stated  that  he  is  to  hand  the  water  for  the  archbishop 
to  wash  his  fingers  before  and  after  meals ;  that  he  is  to  see 
that  all  the  gentlemen  and  yeomen  are  in  the  dining-room  ; 


THE    PALACE    OF    LAMBETH  67 

"that  the  tables  be  orderly  covered  in  due  time,  at  ten  in 
the  forenoon  and  five  in  the  evening "  ;  that  the  sideboard 
and  cupboards  are  furnished  with  plate  and  glasses,  and 
upon  extraordinary  occasions  that  he  is  to  carve  himself  for 
the  better  instruction  of  others." 

After  each  meal,  both  in  the  hall  and  in  the  chamber,  it  was 
the  duty  of  the  almoner  to  collect  all  the  fragments  of  bread, 
drink,  and  meat  that  were  left,  and  having  "  diligently  kept 
it  from  devouring  of  doggs,"  to  distribute  it  to  the  poor  at 
the  gate,  three  or  four  times  in  the  week,  at  his  discretion. 
He  was  also  expected  to  attend  whenever  the  archbishop 
dined  abroad  "  to  take  up  every  dish  when  the  lord  hath  sett 
it  from  hym,  and  thereof  to  make  sufficiently  the  almes  dish 
to  be  given  to  the  most  needy  man  or  woman  by  his  direc- 
tion, always  the  lord's  tenant."  Those  dishes  were  excepted, 
however,  which  the  archbishop  sent  to  "  strangers  or  other 
of  his  household."  This  distribution  of  broken  meats 
amongst  the  poor,  known  as  the  Lambeth  Dole,  was  started 
by  Robert  Winchelsea,  who  was  archbishop  from  1293  till 
1313,  and  in  a  modified  form  it  still  exists. 

Accounts  were  kept  by  the  head  of  each  department,  and 
were  periodically  brought  and  submitted  to  the  comptroller, 
who  himself  kept  a  book,  "  and  divided  it  into  certain  titles, 
as  wardrobe,  stable,  kitchen,  board  wages,  journeying,  etc." 
An  example  of  the  form  of  entry  is  given  under  each  title, 
the  following  being  a  specimen  bill  for  the  wardrobe  ; — 

"  June,  1561. 

Thomas  Marshall  asketh  allowance  for  xx'"  elnes  of  canvas  by  hym 
bought  of  me.  At  viii"*  the  elne  xiii""  iiii'*-  Item  for  xx''*  burden 
ruffles  iii-    iiii"^ 

Sum :  xvi'-    viii*^- 

Probatur  per  me  N.D. 
Ultimo  die  Junii,  1561  " 

F    2 


68        ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

Under  the  title  of  journeying  was  entered  the  allowance 
for  the  expenses  incurred  by  any  servant  who  was  sent  away 
on  "  the  lord's  business,"  provided  he  reported  himself  before 
starting  and  on  his  return.  If,  however,  the  sum  given 
him  did  not  cover  his  outlay,  the  deficiency  could  only  be 
made  up  by  special  warrant  from  the  archbishop  in  form  of 
a  gift. 

In  spite  of  the  lavish  display  and  hospitahty,  precautions 
were  taken  against  all  wastefulness  in  the  household.  The 
grooms  of  the  chamber  were  obliged  to  bring  their  torches 
every  day  to  the  ewery  to  be  measured  and  weighed.  The 
wheat  was  delivered  to  the  bakers  by  "  taile  and  weight"; 
and  from  every  bushel  thirty-two  loaves  had  to  be  made, 
each  weighing  twenty-three  ounces.  All  trenchers  were  to 
be  cut  as  large  as  the  loaf  would  allow,  and  no  loaf  was  to 
be  "  rounded  or  pared,  except  for  my  lord's  table."  All 
loaves,  however,  could  be  chipped,  and  the  chippings  were 
the  legitimate  perquisites  pertaining  to  the  pantry.  All  the 
lees  and  dregs  of  the  wine  were  put  into  a  separate  vessel, 
and  part  of  it  given  to  the  "  clerk  of  the  sawcery  "  to  make 
vinegar,  the  rest  being  used  by  the  cooks  "for  gellies, 
pottage,  and  other  subtleties."  Only  the  empty  vats,  etc., 
constituted  the  perquisites  of  this  department.  The  spices 
and  fruits  were  given  out  by  weight  by  the  clerk  of  the 
spicery,  and  he  was  expected  to  "  take  heed  to  them  daily, 
as  some  are  tender  and  need  of  oversight."  Here  the  fees 
were  the  empty  pots  of  green  ginger  and  the  bags  and  boxes 
that  had  contained  succades. 

In  the  larder  and  kitchen  the  cooks  were  not  supposed  to 
take  any  of  the  skimmings  from  the  pots  for  themselves  until 
th  household  had  been  served.  The  empty  barrels  of 
herrings  sturgeon,  salt  salmon,  etc.,  were  their  property,  and 


THE    PALACE    OF    LAMBETH  6g 

also  the  skins  of  all  the  rabbits  which  were  presented  to  the 
archbishop.  The  skins  of  those  that  were  bought,  however, 
belonged  to  the  caterer,  and  the  panniers  of  sea-fish  were 
distributed  amongst  the  yeomen,  grooms,  and  pages. 

According  to  the  rules  for  the  general  conduct  of  the 
household,  no  member  of  it  was  allowed  to  keep  more  than 
a  certain  number  of  servants  or  horses,  and  he  was  expected 
to  give  sufficient  wages  and  livery  of  the  lord's  colour.  Special 
stress  is  laid  upon  the  injunction  against  swearing  and  picking 
quarrels,  and  the  marshal  and  ushers  of  the  hall  were  to 
see  to  it,  that  there  was  no  "wrestling"  or  evil  language  at 
the  serving-board  at  breakfast.  No  dogs  were  to  be  kept 
within  the  household,  and  the  servants  were  to  refrain  from 
"shouting,  crying,  or  blowing  of  horns  "  at  night.  They 
were  also  requested  not  to  break  windows  or  doors,  nor  to 
pick  locks  without  the  command  of  head  officers.  Cards 
and  dicing  were  strictly  forbidden  in  any  place  but  the 
great  hall,  and  there  only  on  feast  days  in  the  winter  months 
and  on  the  twelve  days  following  Christmas. 

In  Archbishop  Parker's  time  anyone  who  spoke  to  a  superior 
officer  without  uncovering  had  his  hat  taken  from  him  and 
nailed  against  the  screen  in  the  hall  for  every  one  to  see. 

When  the  archbishop  was  travelling  with  his  household 
no  one  was  permitted  to  ride  "  out  of  my  lord's  company," 
except  those  who  looked  after  the  sumpter  horses  and  the 
purveyors  who  went  on  ahead  to  prepare  food  and  lodging. 
Every  one  rode  in  the  cavalcade  according  to  his  degree : 
"  the  head  officers  next  unto  my  lord,  except  the  cross-bearer  ; 
and  next,  after  my  lord,  doctors  and  chaplains,  and  then 
yeomen  :  and  after  them  grooms,  pages,  and  males." 

After  Warham's  death  Thomas  Cranmer  became  arch- 
bishop, chosen  by  Henry  VHI.  as  one  likely  to  further  the 


70        ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL   PALACES 

king's  schemes.  He  was  consecrated  on  March  20,  1533 ; 
in  the  following  May  he  pronounced  the  sentence  of  divorce 
against  Katherine  of  Aragon,  and  in  June  he  proclaimed  the 
validity  of  the  marriage  with  Anne  Boleyn,  announcing  it 
"  in  a  certain  well-known  gallery  in  the  manor  of  Lambeth." 
In  April  in  the  following  year  the  commissioners  for  the 
oath  of  succession,  including  the  Archbishop,  Lord  Audley, 
the  Chancellor,  and  Thomas  Cromwell,  the  king's  secretary, 
sat  at  Lambeth  to  receive  the  oaths  of  those  clergy,  chiefly 
of  London,  that  had  not  already  sworn.  Both  Bishop  Fisher 
of  Rochester,  who  had  refused  the  oath  at  the  breaking  up 
of  Parliament,  and  Sir  Thomas  More,  the  only  layman 
summoned  on  this  occasion,  were  commanded  to  attend  at 
Lambeth.  On  that  morning  Sir  Thomas  More  went  to  Chelsea 
Church  and  confessed  and  Communicated.  He  departed 
gloomily,  refusing  to  allow  his  wife  and  children  to  accompany 
him  as  usual  to  the  riverside,  ''  but  pulled  the  wicket  after 
him,  and  shut  them  all  from  him."  Together  with  his  son- 
in-law,  William  Roper,  and  four  servants,  he  embarked 
"  with  a  heavy  heart,  as  from  his  countenance  it  appeared," 
and  was  rowed  towards  Lambeth.  For  a  time  he  remained 
silent  ;  then  suddenly  he  turned  and  said  :  "  Son  Roper,  I 
thank  our  Lord  the  field  is  won."  William  Roper  did  not 
immediately  gather  what  he  meant,  but  he  replied  :  "  Sir,  I  am 
very  glad."  Afterwards,  thinking  it  over,  he  believed  "  that 
it  was  the  love  he  had  to  God  wrought  in  him  so  effectually 
that  he  utterly  conquered  his  carnal  affection." 

Sir  Thomas  was  the  first  to  go  in  before  the  commis- 
sioners. After  the  reason  of  the  summons  to  him  was 
explained,  he  asked  to  see  the  oath,  and  it  was  shown  to  him 
"  under  the  Great  Seal" ;  then  he  asked  also  for  the  Act  of  Suc- 
cession, which  was  given  to  him  in  a  printed  roll,  and  he  read 


THE    PALACE    OF   LAMBETH  71 

the  two,  and  compared  them  in  silence.  At  length  he  replied 
that,  while  he  abstained  from  finding  any  fault  in  the  Act,  or 
blaming  any  man  who  had  sworn  to  it,  yet  his  conscience  so 
moved  him,  that,  though  he  did  not  deny  the  succession,  he 
could  not  in  good  faith  take  the  oath. 

The  commissioners  warned  him  that  such  an  attitude 
would  rouse  the  king's  suspicions ;  and  they  showed  him  the 
long  list  of  nobles  and  commons  who  had  already  signed. 
Then  finding  that  their  representations  did  not  move  him 
they  requested  him  to  withdraw  to  the  garden.  "  I  tarried 
in  the  old  burned  chamber  that  looks  into  the  garden,"  Sir 
Thomas  More  wrote  to  his  daughter,  Margaret  Roper,  "  but 
would  not  go  out  because  of  the  heat."  From  here,  pre- 
sently, he  watched  Dr.  Latimer  strolling  in  the  garden  with 
other  doctors  and  chaplains  ;  "and  very  merry  I  saw  him,  for 
he  laughed  and  took  one  or  twain  about  the  neck  so  hand- 
somely that  if  they  had  been  women  I  would  have  weened 
that  he  had  waxed  wanton." 

While  he  was  still  waiting  here.  Dr.  Wilson  was  brought 
passed  him,  and  "gentilmanly  sent  straight  to  the  Tower." 
But  the  Vicar  of  Croydon,  who  had  formerly  made  some 
difficulty,  now  took  the  oath  with  the  rest  of  the  London 
clergy,  "and  had  such  favour  at  the  counsel's  hands, 
that  they  were  not  lingered  nor  made  to  dance  any  long 
attendance  to  their  travail  and  cost  ...  so  far  forth,  that 
Master  Vicar  of  Croydon,  either  for  gladness  or  for  dryness, 
or  else  that  it  might  be  known  quod  ille  notus  erat  pontifici, 
went  to  my  lord's  buttery  and  called  for  drink,  and  drank 
valde  fainiliariter."  Sir  Thomas  was  summoned  once  again, 
"  when  they  had  played  their  pageant,"  but  he  only  repeated 
what  he  had  already  said,  and  refused  to  take  the  oath  as  it 
stood. 


72        ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

Bishop  Fisher  and  Sir  Thomas  More  met  at  Lambeth  on 
this  day,  and  More  greeted  the  bishop,  saying:  "  Well  met, 
my  lord!  I  hope  we  shall  meet  in  heaven";  and  Fisher 
replied:  "This  should  be  the  way,  Sir  Thomas,  for  it  is  a 
very  straight  gate  that  we  are  in." 

Bishop  Fisher  asked  five  days  for  consideration,  and  then 
he  too  refused  in  practically  the  same  terms  as  Sir  Thomas 
More. 

It  was  only  two  years  later  that  Anne  Boleyn  herself  was 
brought  to  the  Crypt  of  Lambeth,  to  answer  "on  the  salva- 
tion of  her  soul,"  whether  there  had  not  been  some  lawful 
impediment  to  her  marriage.  The  queen  had  been  tried 
and  condemned  to  death  the  day  before,  and  in  the  hope 
that  confession  might  save  her  and  those  accused  with  her 
she  acknowledged  that  such  impediments  existed,  particularly 
in  her  engagement  to  Lord  Percy.  Cranmer  himself,  who 
owned  that  he  was  "  most  bound  to  her  of  all  creatures 
living,"  and  who  "  loved  her  not  a  little,"  pronounced  the 
marriage  to  have  been  invalid,  and  Anne  was  taken  away 
again,  up  into  the  post-room  of  the  Water  Tower,  and  out  on 
to  the  river-stairs,  where  she  entered  her  barge,  and  was  rowed 
down  the  river  to  the  Tower. 

Before  all  else  Cranmer  served  the  king  ;  he  supported  him 
through  the  intricacies  of  his  marriages,  and  gave  some 
dignity  to  his  religious  enterprise.  Henry  VIII.  never  with- 
drew his  favour  from  him,  though  Anne  Boleyn's  disgrace 
rendered  the  archbishop  obviously  anxious  lest  the  king 
should  change  his  opinions  with  his  love,  and  in  a  letter  of 
condolence  to  his  royal  master  he  expresses  the  hope  that 
the  king  "  would  continue  his  love  to  the  Gospel,  lest  it 
should  be  thought  that  it  was  for  her  sake  only  that  he  had 
favoured  it." 


THE    PALACE    OF   LAMBETH  j^ 

Lambeth  Palace  was  the  scene  of  constant  discussions  upon 
doctrine  and  ritual :  the  Bishops  of  London,  Durham,  and 
Chichester,  at  one  time  resorting  there  frequently  to  confer 
with  the  archbishop.  The  Bishop  of  Durham  had  a  book  in 
Greek  concerning  the  usages  of  the  Old  Church,  which 
"  divers  times  "  he  brought  with  him  to  Lambeth  to  support 
his  views,  showing  it  to  the  Bishop  of  Chichester,  as  they 
proceeded  there  together  in  his  barge.  And  often  when  these 
three  bishops  had  left  Cranmer  they  would  pace  the  gallery 
at  Lambeth,  and  "  were  very  earnest "  in  favour  of  the  old 
usages. 

Stokesley,  Bishop  of  London,  disapproved  of  Cranmer's 
doctrine,  and  refused  to  collaborate  with  him  on  any  point. 
When  the  archbishop  undertook  a  new  edition  of  the  Bible 
in  English  he  sent  portions  of  an  old  version  to  the  "  best 
learned  bishops  "  to  be  corrected  by  them,  and  returned  to 
Lambeth  by  a  certain  day.  "  The  Acts  of  the  Apostles  "  was 
sent  to  the  Bishop  of  London  ;  but  when  the  day  came  his 
portion  was  the  only  one  not  returned.  A  messenger  was 
sent  toFulham,  and  the  MS.  was  delivered  to  him  untouched, 
with  the  reply  that  Stokesley  "  had  bestowed  never  an  hour 
on  it,  nor  never  would,"  for  he  would  "  never  be  guilty  of 
bringing  the  simple  people  into  error." 

Cranmer's  opinions  aroused  the  ill-will  of  other  of  his  sub- 
ordinates, as  appears  from  the  plot  of  the  prebendaries  and 
canons  of  Canterbury  against  him.  On  this  occasion  it 
was  the  king  himself  who  warned  the  archbishop  of  his 
danger.  "  He  put  the  book  of  articles  [against  Cranmer]  in 
his  sleeve,  and  passing  one  evening  in  his  barge  by  Lambeth 
Bridge,  the  archbishop  standing  at  the  stairs  to  do  his  duty 
to  His  Majesty,  he  called  him  into  the  barge,  and  accosting 
him  with  these  words :   '  Oh,  my  chaplain,  now  I  know  who 


74        ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

is  the  greatest  heretic  in  Kent,'  communicated  to  him  these 
matters,  showing  him  the  book  of  articles  against  him  and 
his  chaplains,  and  bade  him  peruse  it."  Cranmer  then  knelt 
to  the  king  and  begged  for  a  commission  to  try  the  truth  of 
these  accusations. 

Under  Edward  VI.,  the  archbishop  invited  Peter  Martyr, 
Alasco  the  Pole,  Martin  Bucer,  and  other  foreign  Protestants, 
who  were  persecuted  on  the  Continent,  to  stay  at  Lambeth. 

On  the  accession  of  Mary,  Cranmer  faced  his  fate.  He 
was  arrested,  tried,  and  condemned.  The  archbishopric  was 
sequestered  into  the  hands  of  Cardinal  Pole,  and  it  is  said 
that  Mary  completely  refurnished  the  palace  for  his  reception. 
The  country  was  suddenly  Catholic  once  more,  and  on 
December  6,  1554,  the  whole  convocation  of  the  Upper  and 
Lower  Houses  proceeded  to  Lambeth,  and  kneeling  before 
the  cardinal,  "  he  absolved  them  from  all  their  perjuries, 
schisms,  and  heresies."  Cardinal  Pole  died  at  Lambeth  of  a 
double  quartan  ague  on  the  very  day  of  Mary's  death, 
November  17,  1558,  and  his  body  lay  in  state  there  until 
December  10,  when  it  was  conveyed  to  Canterbury.  It  was 
Cardinal  Pole  who  is  said  to  have  planted  the  two  fig-trees 
in  Lambeth  garden,  which  were  still  to  be  seen  in  1806,  while 
slips  taken  from  the  original  plants  are  now  flourishing  trees. 

Mathew  Parker,  who  was  chosen  by  Elizabeth  to  succeed 
Reginald  Pole,  was  the  first  archbishop  to  be  consecrated 
according  to  the  Protestant  rite.  The  ceremony  took  place 
in  Lambeth  Chapel  on  December  17,  1559.  The  east  end  of 
the  chapel  was  hung  with  tapestry;  the  floor  was  covered 
with  a  red  carpet,  and  the  Communion  table  was  prepared 
with  a  cloth  and  a  cushion.  Four  chairs  were  placed  for  the 
four  officiating  bishops  on  the  south  side  of  the  east  end,  and 
in  front  of  them  a  bench  covered  with  a  carpet  and  cushions 


THE    PALACE    OF   LAMBETH  75 

on  which  they  were  to  kneel.  Opposite  these  stood  the  chair 
for  the  archbishop  himself.  Very  early  in  the  morning, 
Mathew  Parker,  in  a  long  scarlet  gown  and  hood,  four 
torches  carried  before  him,  entered  the  chapel  by  the  west 
door,  accompanied  by  the  four  consecrating  bishops,  William 
Barlow,  Bishop-elect  of  Chichester,  John  Scory,  Bishop-elect 
of  Hereford,  Miles  Coverdale,  Bishop  of  Exeter,  and  John 
Hodgkin,  Bishop  of  Bedford.  After  the  ceremony  a  banquet 
was  given  in  the  great  hall. 

Judging  from  a  list  of  the  charges  incurred  by  Mathew 
Parker  "  at  his  entry,"  the  expenses  of  becoming  an  arch- 
bishop were  by  no  means  light :  the  fees  to  the  queen's 
household  and  the  "charges  of  consecration  "  amounting  to 
£300,  and  the  cost  of  enthronement  to  another  ;^200.  In 
the  same  document  were  entered  the  approximate  sums  spent 
on  furnishing  the  palace.  The  bedding,  tapestry,  and  carpets 
were  estimated  at  ^f  200,  and  the  linen  at  ^^80 ;  ;f  120  was  paid 
for  hand-irons,  tables,  stools,  chests,  pewter,  brass  and  all 
kitchen  necessaries,  and  the  household  plate  cost  ;^40.  A 
barge  and  its  fittings  were  put  at  £"20,  and  the  chapel  furniture 
amounted  to  the  same  sum.  The  armoury  was  supplied 
"  according  to  the  statute,"  with  lances,  demi-lances,  corslets, 
rivets,  pikes,  bows  and  arrows,  etc.,  at  an  expenditure  of 
£100.  Twenty  geldings  cost  £So,  and  "  the  four  great 
horses,  according  to  the  statute,"  ^^40.  The  servants,  gentle- 
men, yeomen,  and  grooms  were  fitted  out  in  new  liveries  of 
cloth  and  velvet  for  £80,  and  -£"40  were  spent  on  the 
"  necessary  furniture  "  for  the  archbishop  himself,  such  as 
silks,  velvets,  and  furs. 

During  the  years  that  Parker  was  archbishop.  Queen 
Elizabeth  frequently  visited  Lambeth,  sometimes  staying 
there  two  or  three  days  and  sometimes  only  remaining  to 


76        ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL   PALACES 

dine.  On  one  occasion,  her  visit  being  in  Lent,  a  sermon 
was  preached  before  her  by  Dr.  Pearce.  A  pulpit  was  put  up 
in  the  quadrangle  near  the  pump.  The  queen  was  seated  in 
"  the  upper  gallery  that  looks  towards  the  Thames ;  the 
nobles  and  courtiers  in  the  other  galleries  which  form  the 
quadrangle."  The  courtyard  was  crowded  with  people  who 
stared  at  the  queen  as  much  as  they  listened  to  the  preacher. 
After  the  sermon,  a  banquet  was  given  in  "  the  great  room 
next  to  the  garden  below-stairs,"  all  the  rest  of  the  house 
being  occupied  by  the  queen  and  her  attendants.  Nine  earls 
and  seven  barons  sat  at  the  archbishop's  table  ;  at  a  second 
table  were  the  comptroller  of  the  queen's  household,  her 
secretary,  and  many  knights  and  esquires ;  while  a  third  was 
provided  for  the  lord  treasurer,  the  chamberlain,  and  State 
officials.  The  whole  cost  of  entertainment  was  borne  by  the 
archbishop. 

It  was  at  the  end  of  one  of  her  visits  to  Lambeth  that  the 
queen  took  the  opportunity  to  pay  off  a  grudge  that  she  had 
against  the  archbishop,  who  had  absolutely  and  consistently 
refused  to  enforce  celibacy  amongst  the  clergy  at  her  wish. 
The  queen  retorted  by  her  famous  insult  to  his  wife. 
"  Madam  I  may  not  call  you,"  she  said  to  Mrs.  Parker,  "  and 
mistress  I  am  ashamed  to  call  you,  so  as  I  know  not  what  to 
call  you  ;  but  yet  I  do  thank  you  for  your  good  cheer." 
Madam,  at  that  date,  was  the  title  of  married  women,  and 
mistress  that  of  unmarried  women. 

The  queen,  however,  appreciated  Parker's  moderation  and 
capacity,  and  on  one  occasion,  when  he  had  incurred  her 
displeasure  by  speaking  too  plainly,  she  restored  him  to 
favour  with  a  skilful  publicity.  The  archbishop,  himself 
writing  to  Lady  Bacon,  describes  what  happened.  "  The 
other  day  I  was  well  chidden  by  my  prince's  hand ;  but  with 


THE    PALACE   OF    LAMBETH  77 

one  ear  I  heard  her  hard  words,  and  with  the  other,  and  in  my 
conscience  and  heart,  I  heard  God.  And  yet  Her  Highness 
being  never  so  much  incensed  as  to  be  offended  with  me,  the 
next  day  coming  to  Lambeth  Bridge  into  the  fields,  and  I 
according  to  my  duty  meeting  her  on  the  bridge,  she  gave  me 
her  very  good  looks,  and  spoke  secretly  in  mine  ear  that  she 
must  needs  continue  my  authority  before  the  people  to  the 
credit  of  my  office." 

The  archbishop's  hospitality  was  extended  to  all-comers, 
and  he  commanded  his  servants  to  receive  strangers  with 
civility.  At  the  same  time,  a  certain  decorum  of  manner  was 
required,  and  conversation  at  meals  was  restricted  to  religion 
or  "  some  honest  and  beseeming  subject  "  ;  while,  if  any  man 
spoke  too  loud,  the  monitor  hushed  him  with  a  cry  of 
"  Silence  !  " 

In  1561  an  assessus  of  the  bishops  was  held  at  Lambeth,  and 
various  articles  of  religion  were  agreed  upon  between  them. 
Ten  years  later,  on  account  of  the  archbishop's  indisposition, 
the  conference  was  again  held  there,  and  it  was  then 
ordained  that  the  articles  should  be  put  into  English  and 
printed. 

Archbishop  Parker  did  a  great  deal  to  restore  and  improve 
the  palace.  He  covered  the  great  hall  with  shingles,  and  he 
built  "  the  long  bridge  that  reacheth  into  the  Thames."  A 
summer-house,  originally  built  by  Cranmer,  but  then  almost 
in  ruins,  he  restored  completely,  and  he  repaired  also  two 
aqueducts — one  in  the  garden,  and  the  other  in  the  inner 
cloister  for  the  use  of  the  household.  Besides  all  this,  he 
devised  drains  leading  underground  into  the  Thames,  "  to 
cleanse  and  keep  his  house  sweet." 

Parker's  successor,  Edmund  Grindal,  was  not  in  favour 
with  Elizabeth,  and  she  never  went  to  Lambeth  in  his  day  ; 


78        ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

but  after  John  Whitgift  became  archbishop  in  1583,  her  visits 
there  were  resumed,  sometimes  lasting  for  two  or  three  days. 
In  1602,  when  "  Mrs.  Fowler's  brother,  Boughton,"  who 
served  the  archbishop,  was  stabbed  at  bowls  by  a  page, 
Whitgift  was  said  to  be  much  grieved,  and  the  queen  came  to 
Lambeth  herself  to  comfort  him. 

Archbishop  Whitgift  was  in  very  high  favour  with  the 
queen,  who  used  to  call  him  "her  little  black  husband,  and 
called  his  servants  her  servants."  He  was  even  supposed  to 
be  her  confessor  and  to  know  all  her  secrets,  and  "  she  never 
eat  flesh  in  Lent  without  obtaining  a  licence  from  her  little 
black  husband."  She  was  also  accustomed  to  say  that  she 
had  laid  all  the  burden  of  her  "clergy-cares  upon  his 
shoulders." 

It  fell  to  Whitgift  to  receive  at  Lambeth  the  queen's  fallen 
favourite,  the  Earl  of  Essex,  when  on  his  way  to  the  Tower. 
The  night  was  so  stormy  that  the  barge  could  not  advance 
with  the  prisoners  down  the  river,  and  Essex  was  brought  for 
shelter  to  the  palace,  the  archbishop  meeting  him  upon  the 
river-stairs. 

James  I.  visited  Whitgift  during  his  last  illness  at  Lambeth, 
"  and  found  him  in  his  bed  in  a  declining  condition  and  very 
weak."  The  king  remained  talking  with  him  for  a  little,  and 
as  he  took  his  leave  assured  him  that  "  he  had  a  great 
affection  for  him,  and  a  very  high  value  for  his  prudence  and 
virtues,  and  would  endeavour  to  beg  his  life  of  God  for  the 
good  of  His  Church";  and  the  dying  bishop  merely  murmured, 
"  Pro  Ecclesia  Dei,  pro  Ecclesia  Dei.''  And  these  were  the 
last  words  he  ever  spoke. 

Edmund  Bancroft,  who  was  archbishop  from  1604  to  1610, 
founded  the  library  at  Lambeth  with  the  bequest  of  his  own 
collection  of  books. 


I  »„-yy  ll\iUr 


KiciiAKi)  P)AN(Kni-T,  Aki  iir.i^iicii'  OK  Cantekhuky. 

From  /lis  fiortiait  in  tltc  Xationat  I'oytraii  Galkrv. 


THE    PALACE    OF   LAMBETH  79 

The  archbishopric  of  William  Laud  began  in  September, 
1633,  with  what  was  afterwards  regarded  as  an  ill-omen.  On 
his  first  arrival  at  Lambeth,  the  ferry-boat  was  over-loaded, 
and  his  coach,  horses,  and  men  were  upset  into  the  river ; 
fortunately  neither  horses  nor  men  were  drowned.  Probably 
the  water  was  already  low,  for  in  the  December  of  that  same 
year,  after  a  warm  and  dry  season,  the  barges  could  not 
pass  along  the  river.  In  the  following  winter,  however,  the 
inconvenience  was  reversed,  and  an  unusually  high  tide 
caused  the  river  to  overflow,  and  the  water  came  within  the 
gates  of  the  palace,  and  flooded  the  walks,  cloisters,  and 
stables. 

During  the  few  years  that  he  was  archbishop,  Laud  spent 
a   considerable   amount   upon    Lambeth,  and    in    the    very 
month    of  his  election  he  began    to  repair  the  chapel  and 
house.     He  put  in  a  new  altar-rail,  a  pulpit,  and  an  altar- 
table  ;  and  "  a  piece  of  wainscot  that  parted  the  pew  for  the 
lords,"  was  renewed.     Mention  is  also  made  of  the  purchase 
of  four  "holdfasts"  for  the  king's  picture,  and  "lockers"  for 
pigeons.     Two  years  later  the  archbishop  put  new  painted 
glass  into  the  chapel,  and  blazoned  the  royal  arms  with  his 
own  in  "the  great  window  at  the  upper  end  of  the  hall." 
His  arms  again,   with   those  of  the  see,  were  richly  gilded 
over  the  chapel  door.     It  was  in  this  chapel  that,  in  1637, 
the  Duke   of   Lenox   was  married  to    Lady   Mary  Villiers, 
Charles  I.  giving  the  bride  away,  and  the  archbishop  officia- 
ting.    Laud  also  repaired  the  organ,  supplying  it  with  three 
bellows,  a   wind-trunk,  and  a  new  set  of  keys,   the    pipes 
being  gilded  and  the  case  painted  "  wainscot  colour."     He 
bequeathed  this  organ  to  his  successor,  on  condition  that  it 
should  be  then  left  to  the  see  for  ever.     The  archbishop 
appears  to  have  had  a  taste  for  music,  for  in  his  will  he  also 


8o        ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

mentions  "  my  harp,  my  chest  of  viols,  and  the  harpsicord 
that  is  at  Lambeth." 

In  1635  he  had  his  barge  done  up,  and  Thomas  Babb,  a 
painter,  sent  in  his  bill  for  "  painting  the  barge  with  the  six 
oars  with  state-room,  laid  twice  a  fair  green  in  oil."  The 
small  tower  adjoining  the  Water  Tower  on  the  south  was 
built  by  him. 

The  unpopularity  of  the  archbishop,  which  had  been 
sullenly  but  steadily  growing,  came  to  a  head  early  in  1640. 
In  the  April  of  that  year  Samuel  Plumley,  servant  to  one  of 
the  clerks  of  the  office  of  Six  Clerks,  was  heard  to  say,  that 
if  Parliament  should  be  disssolved,  Lambeth  House  would 
be  set  on  fire,  "and  that  they  would  keep  his  Grace  in  it 
until  he  should  be  burnt,  and  that  thousands  would  say  as 
much."  On  May  11,  at  midnight,  a  mob  attacked  Lambeth, 
but  the  archbishop  had  been  warned  and  had  barricaded  the 
house,  and  although  the  insurgents  were  there  for  two  hours, 
they  did  no  serious  harm.  After  this  outbreak  the  king 
ordered  double  watches  to  be  kept  in  the  city,  and  a  detach- 
ment of  men  on  horse  and  foot  were  to  be  on  guard  round 
about  Lambeth,  Newington,  and  St.  George's  Fields. 

Nevertheless  a  good  many  disbelieved  in  the  seriousness 
of  the  popular  feeling,  and  Lord  Conway,  writing  to  the 
archbishop  in  June,  remarked  that  "  if  there  were  persons 
fitting  to  be  heads  to  a  discontented  multitude  there  were 
danger  if  those  men  could  not  be  secured  ;  but  he  that 
fears  any  head  that  can  be  given  to  any  discontented  body 
here  in  England  will  be  afraid,  like  boys  and  women,  of  a 
turnip  cut  like  a  death's  head  with  a  candle  in  it."  Laud 
knew  better  than  this,  and  he  speaks  of  being  daily 
threatened  with  ruin  throughout  the  autumn.  One  evening, 
on  going  into  his  study  at  Lambeth  to  look  at  some  MSS. 


THE    PALACE   OF    LAMBETH  8i 

which  he  was  about  to  send  to  Oxford,  he  found  the  portrait 
of  himself  lying  face  downward  upon  the   floor,  the    cord 
broken.     This  seemed  to  him  an  omen  of  coming  evil,  but  it 
was  not  till  nearly  two  months  later,  December  i8,  that  he 
was   accused   before    the    Parliament   of   high  treason  and 
delivered  into  the  custody  of  the  gentleman  usher.      He  was 
permitted,  however,  to  go  under  guard  to  Lambeth  to  fetch 
some  papers.     In    his  own  account  of  this  day,  he  relates 
that  he  stayed   at   Lambeth   till  the  evening  to  avoid  the 
gazing  of  the  people.      "  I  went  to  Evening  Prayer  in  my 
Chapel.     The  Psalms  of  the  day,  Ps.  93  and  94,  and  chap.  30 
of  Esai.  gave  me  great  Comfort.     God  make  me  worthy  of  it 
and  fit  to  receive  it.     As  I  went  to  my  Barge  hundreds  of  my 
poor  Neighbours  stood  there,  and  prayed  for  my  safety  and 
return  to  my  House.     For  which  I  praise  God  and  them." 
For  three  years  Laud  was  a  prisoner  in  the  Tower,  and  from 
time  to  time  rumours  reached  him  of  the  fate  of  his  palace 
at    Lambeth.     One  day  he  heard  that  Captain  Brown  and 
his  company  were  in  occupation,  and  that  it  was  to  be  given 
up  to  public  uses.     A  little  later  the  news  reached  him  that 
the   soldiers    had    broken    into    the    chapel    and    "  offered 
violence  "  to  the  organ.     Again,  about  a  year  later,  he  learnt 
that  the  chapel  windows  were  broken  and  the  steps  torn  up. 
In  1643,  the  archbishop  was  beheaded.     He  bequeathed  all 
his  chapel  plate  and  furniture  to  St.  John's  College,  Oxford, 
and  all  those  books  that  were  to  be  found  in  his  study  which 
the  college  library  did  not  already  possess.     In  a  note  written 
at   an  earlier   date,   he  presented  to  Lambeth  Library   for 
posterity   "a   book    in  vellum,  fair   written,  containing  the 
records  which   are  in  the  Tower  and  concern  the  clergy." 
These   documents,  which  cover  the  years  between  1292  to 
1483,  the  archbishop  had  had   copied  at  his  own  expense. 
E.E.p.  G 


82        ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL   PALACES 

The  pictures  at  Lambeth — both  those  he  had  found  there  and 
those  he  had  added  himself — and  his  barge,  he  bequeathed, 
with  the  organ,  to  his  successor,  should  he  have  one.  After 
his  execution  all  his  papers,  both  at  Lambeth  and  in  the 
Tower,  fell  into  Prynne's  hands,  and  were  not  recovered  till 
many  years  later. 

For  twenty  years  after  the  arrest  of  Laud,  in  1640,  there 
was  no  archbishop  at  Lambeth.  On  January  5,  1643,  the 
order  was  issued  for  using  the  palace  as  a  prison  ;  but  it 
appears  that  it  was  already  being  used  as  such,  and  in  the 
preceding  December  Dr.  Alexander  Leighton  had  been  given 
the  keys  of  Lambeth  in  order  to  take  charge  of  those  to  be 
imprisoned  there.  Dr.  Leighton  had  previously  been  con- 
demned to  the  pillory  and  the  loss  of  his  ears  by  Laud,  for 
writing  a  book  called  "  Zion's  Plea  against  the  Prelacy,"  in 
which  he  "  counselled  the  killing  of  all  the  bishops,  and 
called  the  queen  a  Canaanite  and  idolatress." 

A  great  number  of  the  prisoners  were  confined  in  the 
small  turret-room  in  the  Lollards'  Tower,  and  it  was  from 
here  that  Dr.  Guy  Carleton  succeeded  in  escaping.  His 
wife  procured  him  a  rope,  and  arranged  to  wait  for  him  in  a 
boat  beneath  the  tower.  One  night  Carleton  squeezed 
through  the  narrow  north  window  and  slid  down  the  rope  ; 
but  it  was  too  short,  and  he  fell  to  the  ground  breaking  both 
his  legs.  He  was  taken  into  the  boat,  however,  and  con- 
veyed to  some  safe  place,  eventually  escaping  to  France. 
After  the  Restoration  he  returned  to  England,  and  became 
successively  Bishop  of  Bristol  and  of  Chichester. 

In  1644  Sir  Roger  Twysden  was  committed  to  Lambeth 
House  for  preferring  "  a  seditious  petition " ;  and  in  1648 
Richard  Lovelace,  the  poet,  was  imprisoned  there. 

Pestilence     and    fever     raged     at     Lambeth     from     the 


THE    PALACE   OF    LAMBETH  83 

overcrowding  of  the  prisoners.  Numbers  of  them  died,  while 
those  that  survived  were  weakened  by  prolonged  illness. 

The  towers  of  Lambeth  continued  to  be  used  as  State 
prisons  until  the  Restoration  ;  and  in  the  year  before  Oliver 
Cromwell's  death  a  number  of  "  obstinate  and  resolute 
fellows  "  were  sent  there  who  had  been  conspiring  against 
the  protector.  The  plot  had  been  discovered  "  amongst  the 
faction  of  Sundercome  " ;  and  Cromwell  himself  went  down 
there  for  a  couple  of  days,  sitting  up  far  into  the  night 
examining  the  prisoners,  who  refused  to  take  off  their  hats  to 
him  and  addressed  him  as  "  thou." 

About  this  time  Edward  Dandy  was  the  jailor  at  Lambeth. 
He  had  been  serjeant-at-arms  at  the  trial  of  Charles  I.,  and 
besides  reading  the  Proclamation  at  Westminster,  Cheapside, 
and  the  Old  Exchange,  he  had  received  the  axe  from  the 
officer  of  ordinance  at  the  Tower,  with  which  the  king  was 
to  be  executed. 

Even  before  this  date  the  bolder  tongues  were  beginning 
to  foretell  an  end  to  Cromwell's  prosperity,  and  it  was  seized 
upon  as  an  omen  when,  in  1655,  his  coach  and  six  horses 
were  upset  at  the  ferry,  three  of  the  horses  being  drowned 
and  the  boat  and  coach  sinking  to  the  bottom.  It  was  then 
remarked  that  the  same  thing  had  happened  to  Archbishop 
Laud,  and  "  unhappy  people  "  made  "  idle  observation  upon 
it,"  pointing  out  that  "  my  lord  of  Canterbury's  coach  and 
horses  had  been  drowned  in  the  same  place  a  little  before  he 
was  sent  to  the  Tower." 

Excepting  those  parts  reserved  for  the  prisoners,  Lambeth 
House  was  sold,  in  1648,  to  Colonel  Thomas  Scott,  one  of  the 
regicides,  and  Mathew  Hardy.  A  minute  description  of 
the  building  and  grounds  is  given  in  a  survey  taken  about 
this  time  by  the  Parliament.     The  "  great  stairs  or  bridge," 

G    2 


84        ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL   PALACES 

evidently  so  called  to  distinguish  it  from  the  stairs  by  the 
Water  Tower,  jutted  out  into  the  river  by  the  ferry,  from 
what  was  called  the  Palace  Yard,  which  was  planted  with 
seven  elms  and  two  willows.  Morton's  Gateway  stood  to  the 
north  of  this  space,  and  is  described  as  having  "  one  faire 
chamber"  over  it.  To  the  east  of  it,  then,  as  now,  stood  the 
porter's  lodge,  and  to  the  west  the  "evidence  chamber,"  both 
of  these  having  rooms  above  them  reached  by  stone  stair- 
cases. The  relative  position  of  the  gate-house,  the  Lollards' 
Tower,  and  the  great  hall  was  the  same  as  at  the  present 
day,  enclosing  upon  three  sides  an  oblong  court ;  the  fourth 
side  next  the  Thames  being  shut  in  by  a  "great  brick  wall." 
At  the  north  end  of  the  great  hall,  between  it  and  the 
chapel,  which  extends  east  of  the  Lollards'  Tower,  lay  a 
square  court  surrounded  by  a  cloister.  In  the  centre  stood 
a  well,  and  this  was  no  doubt  the  quadrangle  where  Dr. 
Pearce  preached  before  Queen  Elizabeth.  The  library  of 
the  archbishopric  was  over  the  cloisters.  At  the  north-east 
corner  of  the  hall  were  "  a  great  paire  of  stone  stairs  leading 
up  into  the  lardge  room  called  the  great  chamber."  This, 
which  is  now  the  archbishop's  dining-room,  used  also  to  be 
called  the  guard-room,  and  from  its  northern  end  passages 
led,  on  the  left,  to  the  library,  and  on  the  right  to  the 
presence  chamber.  At  the  opposite  end  of  the  guard-room 
extended  "  a  row  of  lodging-chambers  "  called  Crooked  Lane, 
which  chambers  were  for  servants,  with  chambers  under 
them,  much  ruined  ;  and  apparently  parallel  with  these,  at 
the  south-east  corner  of  the  great  hall,  extending  into  what 
is  now  an  open  grassy  court,  were  the  kitchen,  larders, 
pantries,  etc.  Near  by  a  gate  led  eastward  into  the  stable- 
yard,  next  the  churchyard,  where  stood  the  malt-room,  corn- 
chambers,  washhouse,  and  stables. 


THE    PALACE    OF   LAMBETH  85 

East  of  the  chapel  stood  another  tower,  and  beyond  this 
were  the  dining-rooms,  while  further  east  again  was  "  a 
fair  long  wainscoted  gallery,"  with  a  terrace-walk  beneath 
it,  opening  on  to  the  garden  which  lay  to  the  north  of  the 
palace. 

The  archbishop's  apartments  consisted  of  three  wainscoted 
rooms  leading  out  of  this  gallery  upstairs,  and  three  rooms 
under  them  reached  by  a  private  staircase.  To  the  south 
these  rooms  overlooked  the  kitchen  garden. 

The  flower  garden,  which  was  bounded  on  the  south  by 
the  palace,  "  was  foure  square,  and  Walled  about  on  the  north 
and  West  sides  with  Brickwalls."  To  the  east  of  it  lay  an 
orchard  "  sett  with  Apple  Trees,  Paire  Trees,  Plum  Trees, 
and  Moated  round  about."  Along  the  western  wall  was 
another  terrace-walk  "  paved  with  square  Tyles,  opening  with 
arches  "  into  the  garden,  and  over  this  was  "  a  fair  leaden 
Walke  with  a  Bankuetting  house  in  the  North-East 
Corner  thereof."  The  gardener's  house,  consisting  of  three 
rooms  one  above  the  other,  stood  in  the  north-east  corner. 

The  park  or  close,  only  about  four  acres  in  extent,  la}^  to 
the  east  of  the  palace,  and  was  also  surrounded  by  a  moat, 
except  on  the  north  side,  where  a  wall  divided  it  from  the 
street.  This  park,  which  contained  two  fishponds,  was 
planted  with  over  200  elms,  forty-eight  walnut  trees,  and 
half  a  dozen  chestnut  trees. 

During  the  Commonwealth  serious  damage  was  done  to 
the  palace.  The  great  hall  was  completely  demolished,  the 
chapel  windows  smashed,  and  the  tomb  of  Archbishop 
Parker  was  torn  up,  the  lead  within  the  coffin  sold,  and  the 
body  itself  "  thrown  into  some  obscure  hole."  The  monu- 
ment, by  some  chance,  escaped  destruction,  and  when  Arch- 
bishop   Juxon    was    repairing   the    chapel,    Mathew    Hardy 


86        ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

was  summoned  to  reveal  where  the  body  lay,  and  it  was 
reburied  near  the  chapel  door.  Juxon  rebuilt  the  great 
hall  after  the  pattern  of  the  old  building,  and  in  the  three 
years  that  he  was  archbishop  he  spent  about  £1,500  in 
repairs  at  Lambeth  and  Croydon. 

It  was  Archbishop  Sheldon  who  recovered  Laud's  papers, 
and  he  commissioned  William  Bancroft  to  translate  and  edit 
Laud's  diary  and  the  history  of  his  trial  and  death.  Bancroft's 
election  to  the  archbishopric  obliged  him  to  defer  this  work, 
and  he  did  not  resume  it  until  after  his  deposition.  He  was 
at  work  upon  it  in  1693  when  his  last  illness  prostrated  him, 
and  he  bequeathed  the  labour  to  his  chaplain,  Henry 
Wharton. 

Bancroft  was  the  head  of  the  Seven  Bishops,  and  the 
petition  against  the  Declaration  was  drawn  up  at  Lambeth. 
He  was  also  amongst  those  who  signed  the  order  to  Lord 
Dartmouth,  bidding  him  take  no  hostile  action  against 
William  of  Orange  ;  but  at  the  first  suspicion  that  William 
desired  the  crown  for  himself  the  archbishop  drew  back. 
State  affairs  were  discussed  daily  at  Lambeth ;  and  Bancroft, 
while  acknowledging  that  James  II.  was  unfit  to  rule, 
insisted  that  while  he  lived  no  other  king  could  reign,  and 
William  could  only  be  regent.  Nor  would  he  permit  his 
chaplain  to  pray  for  the  new  king  and  queen  in  Lambeth 
chapel. 

On  August  I,  1689,  the  archbishop  was  suspended  ;  in  the 
February  of  the  following  year  he  was  deposed,  and  John 
Tillotson  was  publicly  declared  to  be  his  successor.  But 
Bancroft  would  not  leave  Lambeth.  He  dismissed  nearly  all 
his  servants  ;  shutting  his  doors  against  the  world  in  general, 
he  put  an  end  to  the  traditional  hospitality  which  entertained 
all    comers.      He   packed    up   his  books,    and   advised   his 


THE    PALACE   OF   LAMBETH  87 

chaplains  to  leave  him,  but  Henry  Wharton,  though  he 
disagreed  with  him  politically,  refused  to  go. 

In  May,  an  order  came  from  the  queen  that  he  was  to 
leave  Lambeth  at  once,  but  he  declared  that  he  would  not 
go  until  the  law  compelled  him.  Early  in  June  he  was 
summoned  to  answer  a  charge  of  intrusion,  and  on  the  23rd 
judgment  was  given  against  him.  On  that  same  evening 
Bancroft  left  Lambeth  with  Henry  Wharton.  Wharton  was 
the  first  regular  librarian  of  Lambeth  Library,  and  he  devoted 
his  whole  life  and  energies  to  learning.  Besides  editing 
Laud's  diary,  he  compiled  the  **  Anglia  Sacra,"  the  most 
famous  of  his  many  works.  Wharton  died  at  the  age  of 
thirty-one — only  six  months  after  his  master,  Bancroft — and 
was  buried  in  Westminster  Abbey. 

In  1723  Lord  Harley,  afterwards  second  Earl  of  Oxford, 
and  his  chaplain,  Thomas,  went  over  Lambeth  Palace,  which 
they  saw  while  their  servants  and  horses  were  crossing  in 
the  ferry-boat,  they  themselves  having  "got  over  in  a  pair 
of  oars."  Thomas,  who  wrote  the  account  of  their  journeys 
through  England,  speaks  of  Juxon's  Hall  as  a  "very  hand- 
some capacious  room."  From  thence  they  went  upstairs 
and  through  several  apartments  into  the  gallery  which  was 
the  archbishop's  private  library.  This  gallery  was  hung 
with  pictures  which  roused  the  chaplain's  wrath  by  their 
lack  of  merit,  and  he  was  only  mollified  by  the  sight  of 
Holbein's  portrait  of  Warham  which  was  hanging  in  another 
room. 

An  account  of  the  dilapidations  at  Lambeth  in  1737 
shows  that  the  cloisters  were  repaired.  A  vineyard  by 
the  churchyard  is  also  mentioned,  and  so  are  the  barge- 
house,  brew-house,  and  mill-house. 

According   to   a    plan    of   Lambeth,    made    in    1750,    the 


88        ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL   PALACES 

cloisters  round  the  court  between  the  chapel  and  hall  were 
still  there,  and  what  at  this  date  went  by  the  name  of  the 
"  piazza  "  corresponded  to  the  terrace-walk  and  gallery,  from 
which  opened  the  archbishop's  own  apartments.  These 
rooms,  however,  were  now  given  up  to  the  housekeeper. 
The  gardener's  house  still  stood  in  the  north-east  corner 
of  the  garden,  but  the  terrace-walk,  along  the  western  wall 
with  the  banqueting  hall  at  the  end,  had  vanished.  A  melon- 
ground  had  been  made  in  the  centre  of  the  orchard,  and  the 
extent  of  the  grounds  is  given  as  12  acres,  3  roods,  and  12 
perches. 

At  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century  Lambeth  Palace 
was  once  more  attacked  by  a  furious  mob.  In  the  Lord 
George  Gordon  Riots  the  insurgents  surrounded  the  palace, 
and  it  was  only  saved  from  them  by  the  arrival  of  troops. 

Dr.  Howley,  who  became  archbishop  in  1828,  demolished 
the  great  mass  of  irregular  buildings  which  had  grown  up 
through  the  centuries  and  replaced  them  by  a  dwelling-house 
on  a  definite  plan,  spending  on  the  alterations  some  ^^60,000. 
This  part  of  the  palace  stands  now,  as  it  did  then,  eastward 
from  the  Lollards'  Tower.  It  was  Dr.  Howley,  moreover, 
who  turned  the  great  hall  into  the  library,  placing  there  the 
collections  of  Bancroft,  Tenison,  and  Seeker. 

The  great  changes  in  the  surrounding  country  had  begun 
before  this.  In  1750  Westminster  Bridge  was  opened  after 
nearly  a  century  of  opposition  from  the  citizens  of  London 
and  the  Company  of  Watermen.  By  degrees  the  marshes 
were  drained ;  the  meadows  became  covered  with  an  intricate 
maze  of  small  slums  crossed  by  big  thoroughfares.  Factories 
arose ;  mills  and  wharfs  were  built  along  the  river's  edge, 
and  the  river  itself  was  strongly  embanked.  The  green  fields 
have  vanished,  the  game  and  wild  birds  have  vanished,  the 


THE    PALACE    OF    LAMBETH  89 

Duke  of  Norfolk's  Palace  that  once  stood  opposite  the 
church  has  vanished,  and  so  also  has  the  palace  that  first 
belonged  to  the  bishops  of  Rochester  and  then  to  the 
bishops  of  Carlisle.  The  country  hamlet  has  become  a  part 
of  London  itself,  and  the  greater  part  of  the  palace  has 
taken  the  form  of  a  modern  dwelling-house  ;  but  the  chapel 
and  crypt,  the  Lollards'  Tower,  the  guard-room,  the  gateway, 
and  the  great  hall  remain  as  landmarks  upon  the  highway 
of  Time. 


t^t  {pdm  of  fufgam 


UNTIL  early  in  the  nineteenth  century  Fulham 
was  a  country  village,  famous  for  its  market 
gardens  and  orchards;  and  at  that  time,  when 
strawberries  were  in  season,  young  women  (chiefly 
from  Shropshire)  would  flock  there  to  pick  the  fruit  and 
carry  it  to  London,  walking  in  by  night,  the  baskets  poised 
on  their  heads,  and  singing  as  they  went.  The  way  then 
into  Town  lay  between  meadows  and  the  gardens  of  big 
estates. 

The  soil  of  Fulham  was  said  to  owe  much  of  its  fertility 
to  the  deposits  of  mud  left  each  time  the  river  overflowed 
its  banks ;  but  the  low  level  of  the  ground  also  meant  bad 
roads,  and  in  the  seventeenth  century  the  inhabitants  of 
Hammersmith  (then  in  Fulham  parish),  petitioned  Bishop 
Laud  for  a  chapel-of-ease,  as  the  way  to  Fulham  was 
long  and  foul,  "  in  winter  most  toilsome."  In  the 
preceding  century,  the  few  roads  round  Fulham  are  said  to 
have  been  at  times  nearly  impassable,  two  teams  of  horses 
being  needed  to  draw  a  single  cart.  The  duty  of  keeping 
the  roads  in  repair  fell  on  the  tenants  of  land  in  the  parish, 
and  in  1576 — 7,  John  Johnson,  a  gentleman  of  London,  was 
sued  for  not  having  done  his  share.  Although  it  had  been 
duly  announced  from  the  pulpit  that  the  six  days  from 
June  18  to  23  in  that  year  were  appointed  for  mending 
the  highways,  yet  he  had  not  sent  "  any  wain  or  cart  fitted 


THE    PALACE    OF    FULHAM  91 

according  to  the  custom  of  the  country  with  oxen,  horses, 
or  other  cattle,  two  fit  men  and  fit  necessaries  for  carting 
things  for  this  purpose." 

At  the  time  of  the  Domesday  Survey,  Fulham  was  thickly 
wooded,  the  forests  being  sufficient  for  the  pannage  of  1,450 
hogs;  while  throughout  the  Middle  Ages  the  woods  and 
hedgerows  provided  lurking-places  for  robbers,  rendering 
the  wayside  dangerous  to  travellers,  to  such  a  degree  that 
on  one  occasion  a  certain  Thomas  was  called  to  order  for 
allowing  his  grounds  "  to  growe  so  thycke  with  underwoods 
that  it  is  a  grett  harbour  for  theeves."  At  the  present  day 
Fulham  is  practically  continuous  with  London,  and  is 
reached  by  the  two  great  thoroughfares  of  the  Fulham  Road 
and  the  King's  Road ;  but  there  is  still  a  broad  line  of  fields 
along  the  river's  edge,  and  in  the  midst  of  these  stands  the 
Bishop's  Palace  within  grounds  of  some  twenty-eight  acres 
in  extent,  the  whole  enclosed  by  a  moat. 

The  Palace  is  of  dull  red  brick,  ornamented  with  diamonds 
of  single  black  bricks.  The  buildings  are  low,  being  only  of 
two  stories  in  height,  and  are  constructed  round  two 
quadrangles.  The  entrance  is  through  a  wide  arched 
gateway  into  the  first  and  oldest  of  the  courts,  in  the  centre 
of  which  stands  a  fountain,  probably  on  the  site  of  the  one 
mentioned  in  the  Middle  Ages.  The  outward  aspect  of  the 
Palace  gives  an  impression  of  combined  smallness  and 
dignity,  but  within  it  is  a  bewildering  range  of  rooms  and 
passages,  with  occasional  apartments  of  unexpected  state- 
liness.  Between  the  moat  and  the  river  are  now  trim 
flower-beds  and  public  walks,  whence  the  dusky  red  buildings 
are  here  and  there  visible  through  the  branches  of  the  trees. 

The  Manor  of  Fulham  was  granted  to  St.  Erconwald, 
fourth  Bishop  of  London,  by  Tyshthal,  Bishop  of  Hereford. 


92        ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

Erconwald,  who  was  the  son  of  Offa,  King  of  the  East  Saxons, 
was  bishop  from  675  to  693,  and  he  possibly  built  or  laid  the 
foundations  of  the  first  manor-house.  The  bishops  of 
London  certainly  had  a  habitation  there  at  an  early  date, 
and  it  was  at  Fulham  that  the  monk,  Robert  de  Sigillo,  who 
had  been  made  bishop  by  Queen  Maud,  was  taken  prisoner 
by  Geoffrey  de  Mandeville,  one  of  Stephen's  knights.  In 
1255,  Walter  de  Gray,  the  Archbishop  of  York,  died  there. 
He  was  taken  ill,  while  attending  Parliament,  "weighed 
down  by  diverse  cares,  his  mind  weakened  by  daily  fasts," 
and  at  the  invitation  of  Fulk  Basset,  Bishop  of  London,  he 
went  to  rest  "from  his  weariness  and  fruitless  labours"  at 
Fulham,  and  here  he  died  three  days  later. 

Several  patents  of  King  John  and  Henry  III.  are  dated 
from  Fulham  ;  and  Ralph  Baldock,  author  of  the  "  Annals  of 
England,"  who  was  bishop  in  1304  and  chancellor  two  years 
later,  is  said  to  have  lived  there  much.  Bishop  Richard  de 
Bentworth,  who  was  consecrated  at  Lambeth  July  12,  1338, 
was  also  chancellor ;  and  a  memorandum  recounts  that  on 
the  eve  of  the  feast  of  St.  Margaret,  in  that  year.  Sir  John 
de  St.  Pol,  keeper  of  the  Chancery  rolls,  and  Sir  Thomas 
de  Baumburgh,  keeper  of  the  Great  Seal  during  the  king's 
absence,  came  up  from  the  port  of  Orewell,  where  the  king 
had  embarked,  and  delivered  the  seal  to  the  bishop  at 
Fulham  in  the  presence  of  various  nobles,  and  the  bishop 
"  caused  it  to  be  opened  immediately  after  dinner  and  writs 
to  be  sealed  therewith." 

The  expenses  of  keeping  the  manor-houses  belonging  to 
the  see  in  repair  appear  to  have  been  a  constant  and  heavy 
burden,  and  in  1391,  Urban  VI.  granted  the  perpetual 
appropriation  of  the  churches  of  "  Stebenheke,  Fulham,  and 
Hakeney,  value  330  marks,"  to  the  Bishop's  7nensa.     This 


THE    PALACE    OF    FULHAM  93 


grant  was  in  answer  to  a  petition  from  Robert  Braybrooke, 
then  Bishop  of  London,  who  had  complained  that  he  was 
"  put  to  great  charges  "  by  the  "  yearly  influx  to  London  of 
nobles  and  others,  especially  in  parliaments  and  councils  of 
the  king  and  realm,"  and  that  the  buildings  on  his  manors 
being  out  of  repair,  he  found  himself  unable  to  spend  the 
necessary  money  on  them.  Some  years  later,  permission 
was  given  to  the  bishops  to  sell  certain  of  their  houses 
which  were  half-ruined,  and  which  they  could  not  afford  to 
keep  in  order,  retaining  only  their  palace  in  London,  the 
manors  of  Fulham,  Hadham,  and  Wickham,  and  the  castle 
of  Storteford. 

The  items  of  repairs  in  the  yearly  accounts  give  one  some 
idea  of  Fulham  Palace  and  its  grounds  at  about  this  time. 
In  1387,  John  Padnoster,  a  carpenter,  was  employed  to 
arrange  accommodation  for  the  bishop's  cattle  in  winter, 
and  the  "  lord's  chapel"  is  also  mentioned  in  this  year,  an 
iron  saucer  having  been  purchased  for  the  censer.  In 
1402 — 3,  an  allusion  is  made  to  the  hall  near  the  entrance 
court,  while  2s.  were  paid  for  cleaning  the  lord's  room,  and 
the  other  rooms  of  the  manor,  after  the  departure  of  the 
household  of  the  Queen  of  England.  This  was  Joan,  the 
daughter  of  Charles  II.  of  Navarre,  who  had  married  Henry 
IV.  in  the  spring  of  this  year.  Another  entry  of  the  same 
sort  occurs  in  1439 — 40,  after  a  visit  of  Henry  VI.,  when  the 
cleaning  of  the  hall  and  rooms  after  the  king's  departure, 
took  four  days. 

In  this  year,  "  shyngyl  bord  to  repair  and  cover  the  hall  " 
was  brought  from  the  janitor  of  Fulham  Church.  The 
palings  between  the  "house  husbondrie  " — presumably  the 
home  farm— and  the  great  garden,  and  those  of  the  "  vyne 
garden  "  were  mended,  and  the  bucket  or  basin  [bogette]  of 


94        ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

the  well  was  renewed  for  6d.  This  well  is  said  to  have 
been  there  since  1426.  The  larder,  hay-loft,  stable,  and 
the  "  gate  of  the  garden  where  the  wood  lies,"  were  all 
repaired  at  this  time,  and  five  years  later,  half  the  cow-house 
was  rebuilt. 

In  the  reign  of  Edward  IV.  the  shingles  on  the  roof  of  the 
hall,  apparently  being  insecure,  were  made  fast,  and  a 
hundredweight  of  small  stones  were  purchased  in  London 
and  brought  to  Fulham  to  repair  the  roof  of  the  manor- 
house,  the  bake-house,  and  the  "  reredos  in  the  place  called 
the  servyng-place."  The  hall  behind  the  quay  was  covered 
with  shingles,  and  the  tiles  on  the  chapel  were  renewed 
"  where  most  defective."  The  "  reredos  "  of  the  kitchen  was 
repaired  with  brick.  A  herche  or  frame  to  hold  candles  was 
bought,  and  also  a  corn-measure,  containing  about  eight 
bushels,  was  procured  to  stand  at  the  door  of  the  house  larder. 

Many  of  the  archbishops  of  Canterbury  were  first  bishops 
of  London.  Simon  Sudbury,  who  was  elected  to  the  latter 
see  in  1361 — 2,  was  translated  to  the  archbishopric  in  1375, 
and  his  immediate  successor  as  Bishop  of  London,  William 
Courtenay  also  succeeded  him,  at  his  death,  as  primate. 
Courtenay,  a  man  of  determination  and  strongly  defined 
views,  was  the  opponent  of  John  of  Gaunt  and  Wycliffe,  and 
it  was  he  who  braced  the  gentle,  rather  nerveless  opinions  of 
Archbishop  Sudbury,  and  induced  him  to  take  clear  action 
against  the  Lollards. 

John  Kemp,  Bishop  of  London  in  1421,  was  translated 
first  to  York  in  1426,  and  thence  to  Canterbury  in  1452, 
becoming  at  the  same  time  Cardinal-bishop  of  Santa  Ruffina ; 
and  it  was  at  Fulham  that  he  received  the  Cross  and  Pall, 
at  the  hands  of  his  nephew,  John  Kemp,  then  Bishop  of 
London. 


THE    PALACE    OF    FULHAM  95 

It  was  also  at  Fulham  that  William  Warham  was  made 
lord  keeper  of  the  Great  Seal  by  Henry  VI I.  in  August, 
1502,  and  it  was  there  again  that  he  was  consecrated  Bishop 
of  London  in  the  following  September.  Warham  was 
translated  to  Canterbury  two  years  later,  and  was  succeeded 
by  Dr.  William  Barons,  who,  at  the  marriage  of  Prince 
Arthur  and  Katherine  of  Aragon  in  1501,  had  been  deputed 
to  answer  in  Latin  all  the  objections  which  the  king's 
secretary  was  to  put  forward  at  the  calling  of  the  banns. 
His  successor,  as  Bishop  of  London,  Richard  Fitzjames,  then 
Bishop  of  Rochester,  was  also  present  at  the  marriage,  he 
being  one  of  the  six  bishops  appointed  to  meet  the  princess 
in  procession,  and  to  attend  upon  the  archbishop  who  was 
to  receive  Katherine  at  the  west  door  of  St.  Paul's  "  in 
pontificabilis  accompanied  with  suche  bishops  and  abbotes 
as  be  commanded  to  come  to  the  feste."  Fitzjames  became 
Bishop  of  London  in  1506,  and  it  was  he  who  built  the 
oldest  existing  part  of  the  present  palace.  These  buildings 
surround  the  western  court,  which  is  entered  by  the  massive 
arched  gateway.  From  the  opposite  side  of  the  quadrangle, 
a  squat  tower  of  about  the  same  height  as  the  rest  of  the 
buildings,  projects  forward  into  the  court,  and  a  wide  door 
under  this  tower  led  orginally  into  the  great  hall.  A  passage 
is  now  partitioned  off  at  this  end  of  the  hall.  This  spacious 
room,  which  is  50^  feet  by  27  feet,  was  probably  not  completed 
till  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century.  The  armour  or  guard- 
room, with  a  line  square  fire-place  surmounted  by  four  oblong 
carved  panels,  stands  in  the  western  block  of  these  buildings 
beside  the  great  gateway.  Fitzjames  probably  also  enclosed 
the  kitchen  garden  with  the  venerable  red  wall  that  now 
separates  it  from  the  other  grounds,  for  the  bishop's  arms  are 
placed  over  the  arched  doorway  that  leads  into  it. 


96        ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL   PALACES 

Richard  Fitzjames  died  of  the  plague  January  15,  1521 — 2, 
and  was  succeeded  by  Cuthbert  Tunstall,  who  became  lord 
privy  seal  in  the  following  year. 

At  this  period  herons  and  spoonbills  are  said  to  have  built 
in  the  grounds  of  Fulham,  and  in  1522,  Bishop  Tunstall 
brought  an  action  against  one  of  his  tenants  for  taking  these 
birds.  The  defendant  held  a  lease  of  some  twenty  acres  of 
land,  which  it  is  suggested  may  be  identical  with  the  seven- 
teen acres  of  meadow  by  the  river-side,  extending  north  of 
the  palace  to  Craven  Cottage.  The  meadow  called  Pale- 
meade,  described  in  1647,  is  probably  the  same  land',  though 
it  was  then  said  to  contain  only  fifteen  acres  "  by  estimation." 
The  tenant  of  this  land  pleaded  that  as  the  herons  and 
spoonbills  had  made  their  nests  in  the  trees  on  his  territory, 
he  considered  himself  justified  in  taking  them.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  bishop  retorted  that  the  wood  and  underwood 
were  excepted  from  the  lease,  and  as  the  birds  built  in  the 
trees  they  were  his  private  property.  The  opinions  on  this 
case  were  diverse,  some  arguing  that  if  the  trees  could  be 
dealt  with  as  distinct  from  the  soil  they  grew  in,  the  birds 
could  be  equally  distinct  from  the  trees  they  built  in  ;  others 
that  if  the  trees  were  excepted  from  the  lease,  all  that  was 
appurtenant  to  trees  was  also  excepted.  Unfortunately,  the 
verdict  is  not  recorded. 

Tunstall  was  translated  to  Durham  in  1530,  but  during  the 
reign  of  Edward  VI.  he  was  imprisoned  in  the  Tower  as  a 
Catholic.  Under  Mary  he  was  freed  once  more,  but  after  the 
accession  of  Elizabeth,  having  refused  to  assist  in  the  conse- 
cration of  Mathew  Parker  according  to  the  new  rite,  he  was 
once  more  deprived  of  his  see.  He  was  not  sent  again  to  the 
Tower,  however,  but  to  Lambeth,  where  Archbishop  Parker 
treated  him  with  all  courtesy,  so  that  it  was  said  of  him,  "  he 


THE    PALACE   OF    FULHAM  97 

showed  mercy  when  in  power,  and  found  it  in  adversity, 
having  nothing  but  the  name  of  prisoner."  Tunstall  died  at 
Lambeth,  November  18,  1559,  and  was  buried  in  the  chancel 
of  Lambeth  Church.  He  was  a  most  saintly  man,  and  even 
Michael  Wood,  "  the  dealer  in  hard  words,"  could  find  no 
fault  with  him  other  than  his  devotion  to  his  religion,  which. 
Wood  says,  "  was  much  to  be  lamented  in  respect  of  his 
excellent  giftes  and  virtues." 

John  Stokesley  became  Bishop  of  London  when  Tunstall 
was  transferred  to  Durham.  He  had  been  confessor  to 
Henry  VHI.,  and  attended  him  to  the  Field  of  the  Cloth 
of  Gold.  Erasmus,  writing  to  Paul  Bombasius,  speaks  of 
him  as  "  well  versed  in  the  schoolmen  and  intimately 
acquainted  with  three  languages."  Indeed,  in  describing 
the  Court  of  England,  which  was  frequented  by  such  men 
as  More,  Colet,  Linacre,  Tunstall,  and  Stokesley,  he  declared 
it  to  have  been  "  more  a  museum  than  a  Court." 

Stokesley  gave  his  support  to  the  divorce  of  Henry  VHI., 
but  he  strongly  opposed  any  religious  changes,  and  not  only 
did  he  refuse  to  take  any  part  in  Cranmer's  innovations, 
but  he  attacked  heretics  with  rigour.  In  1535,  a  certain 
Richard  Jonson  and  his  wife,  inhabitants  of  Buckstead,  near 
Colchester,  complained  to  Cromwell  that  "  about  Shrovetide 
was  a  twelvemonth  "  they  had  been  brought  to  Fulham, 
imprisoned  there  by  the  Bishop  of  London,  "and  compelled 
to  abstain  from  flesh  till  Whitsuntide,  besides  being  so 
scantily  fed  that  they  would  sooner  have  died."  In  spite  of 
the  fact  that  nothing  was  proved  against  them,  and  that  the 
king  commanded  their  release,  they  were  afterwards  taken  to 
Colchester  "and  imprisoned  worse  than  before."  At  first 
people  helped  them  with  charity,  but  were  "  so  opprobriously 
said  to,  that  they  durst  come  no  more."     About  Michaelmas, 

E.EP.  H 


gS        ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

however,  Jonson  and  his  wife  escaped,  but  they  dared  not  be 
seen  for  fear  of  the  bishop. 

Again  John  Valey  or  Faley,  the  parish  clerk  of  St.  Peter's, 
Colchester,  and  four  others  were  examined  at  Fulham  by  the 
Bishop  of  London  on  a  charge  of  heresy,  while  John  Coole 
was  also  indicted  there  for  his  religious  opinions. 

In  1534,  a  grave  scandal  arose  concerning  the  bishop  and 
the  abbess  of  the  Benedictine  Convent  at  Wherwell,  and  the 
abbess  was  several  times  brought  before  the  council  to  be 
interrogated.  Amongst  other  things  she  was  asked  whether 
she  did  not  come  to  Fulham  from  her  monastery  "  to  make 
merry  with  the  bishop,"  and  whether  the  bishop  did  not 
"  cause  her  to  do  on  his  kirtle  to  keep  my  lady  warm,  wherein 
she  sat  at  supper."  And  again  it  was  inquired  whether  the 
bishop  and  the  abbess  did  not  "  sit  at  talk  together  so  long  in 
the  night  that  her  ladies  were  asleep." 

Stokesley,  who  died  in  1539,  was  succeeded  by  Edmund 
Bonner,  the  fierce  persecutor  of  heretics,  who  was  himself 
twice  deprived  of  his  see  and  imprisoned  for  his  faith.  He 
was  the  illegitimiate  son  of  Elizabeth  Frodsham  and  a 
certain  George  Savage ;  but  he  seems  to  have  always  been 
known  by  the  name  of  his  stepfather,  Bonner,  a  sawyer, 
whom  his  mother  married  after  his  birth.  At  Wolsey's 
death,  Bonner  became  one  of  the  chaplains  of  Henry  VIII., 
and  he  was  much  concerned  in  advocating  the  king's  divorce. 
During  the  first  year  of  his  bishopric,  the  Act  of  the  Six 
Articles  was  passed  ;  the  tide  seemed  turning  in  favour  of 
Catholicism,  and  in  the  following  year  Bonner  was  one  of  a 
commission  to  try  heretics.  However,  on  the  accession  of 
Edward  VI.,  Bishop  Bonner  was  commanded  to  preach  at 
Paul's  Cross  in  favour  of  the  new  religion.  He  preached, 
but  omitted  the  Article  of  the  King's  Supremacy.     He  was 


EuMfNI)    UOXNKK,    BlSIIor    (IK    I.OXDOX. 
J-'roiii  ail  cniiraz'ha;^  in  the  Jin'tis/i  Miiscutn. 


THE    PALACE    OF    FULHAM  gg 

arrested,  and  accused  before  Cranmer  at  Lambeth  of  defying 
the  king,  and,  being  found  guilty,  he  was  imprisoned  at 
the  Marshalsea,  Nicholas  Ridley  being  made  bishop  in 
his  place. 

Ridley  is  described  as  a  man  "  comely  and  well  propor- 
tioned in  all  points."  He  seems  to  have  been  kindly  and 
peaceable,  quick  to  forgive  and  to  forget  injuries.  The 
tenor  of  his  day  was  calm  and  regular.  Every  morning, 
"as  soon  as  his  apparel  was  put  on,"  he  gave  half  an  hour  to 
prayer.  Then  he  went  to  his  study  till  ten  o'clock,  at  which 
hour  the  household  assembled  for  "  common  prayer."  After 
this  he  went  to  dinner,  "  where  he  used  little  talk,  and  then 
it  was  sober  and  discreet  and  wise,  and  sometimes  cheerful 
as  cause  required."  He  then  went  back  to  his  study  until 
live,  when  once  more  there  were  prayers,  followed  by  supper. 
The  evening  was  spent  also  in  his  study  till  eleven  o'clock, 
when  he  was  accustomed  to  go  to  bed.  At  Fulham  he  used 
to  read  a  "  lecture  "  every  day  to  his  household,  beginning 
with  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  and  continuing  through  the 
Epistles  of  St.  Paul,  "  giving  to  every  man  that  could  read  a 
New  Testament."  The  bishop,  however,  did  not  abjure  all 
recreation  ;  he  was  fond  of  "  shooting  in  the  bow  and  playing 
tennis,"  and  often  would  engage  in  these  amusements  with 
Dr.  Turner,  the  Dean  of  Wells. 

During  Bonner's  imprisonment  his  old  mother,  Elizabeth 
Bonner,  continued  to  live  in  Fulham,  in  a  house  near  the 
palace,  probably  in  what  was  afterwards  the  Golden  Lion 
Inn,  which  was  still  standing  early  in  the  nineteenth  century. 
It  is  supposed  that  this  house  belonged  to  Bishop  Bonner 
and  a  vaulted  cellar  approached  by  a  trap-door  and  a  winding 
staircase  was  known  as  Bonner's  dungeon.  A  subterranean 
passage   led  from  this  house  to  the  palace,  and  when  the 

H   2 


100      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL   PALACES 

Golden  Lion  was  pulled  down  in  1836,  Joe  Hatch,  a  water- 
man, explored  it  as  far  as  he  could,  finding  there  a  number 
of  human  skeletons,  packed  away  into  recesses  about  eighteen 
inches  deep. 

It  is  told  of  Bishop  Ridley  that  when  he  was  at  Fulham 
"  he  always  sent  for  Mistress  Bonner,  who  dwelt  in  a  house 
adjoining  to  his  house,  to  dinner  and  supper,  with  one  Mistress 
Mungey,  Bonner's  sister,  saying  :  '  Go  for  my  Mother  Bonner,' 
who  coming  was  ever  placed  in  a  chair  at  the  table's  end, 
being  so  gently  treated,  welcomed,  and  taken  as  though  he 
had  been  born  of  her  own  body,  being  never  displaced  of 
her  seat,  although  the  king's  council  had  been  present, 
saying,  when  any  of  them  were  there :  *  By  your  lordship's 
favour  this  place  of  right  and  custom  is  for  my  Mother 
Bonner.'  " 

Old  Mistress  Bonner  died  during  her  son's  imprisonment, 
"  who,  notwithstanding,  gave  for  her,  mourning  coates  at  her 
death." 

It  was  Ridley  who  ordered  that  the  altars  in  his  diocese 
should  be  done  away  with,  "as  occasions  of  error  and 
superstition."  Plain  tables  were  to  be  used  instead,  and  the 
absurd  disputes  which  raged  as  to  their  position  in  the 
chancel,  afterwards,  laid  Ridley  open  to  the  taunt :  "  When 
your  table  was  constituted,  you  could  never  be  content  in 
placing  the  same,  now  east,  now  north,  now  one  way,  now 
another,  until  it  pleased  God  of  his  goodness  to  place  it  clean 
out  of  the  church." 

Ridley's  fall  came  after  three  years  of  dignity.  At  the 
death  of  the  young  king,  he  supported  the  claims  of  Lady 
Jane  Grey.  He  preached  against  Mary  at  Paul's  Cross, 
drawing  a  picture  of  the  evils  that  would  overtake  the 
country  if  she  were  queen,  and  he  asserted  that  both  she  and 


THE    PALACE    OF    FULHAM  loi 

Elizabeth  were  illegitimate.  However,  when  he  saw  that  it 
was  a  hopeless  cause,  he  hurried  to  Queen  Mary's  camp  at 
Framlingham,  and  asked  for  pardon.  But  Mary  ordered 
him  to  be  taken  to  the  Tower,  and  he  was  conveyed  back  to 
town  "  on  a  lame  and  halting  horse." 

Ridley  thus  became  a  prisoner,  and  Bonner  was  released, 
once  more  to  become  bishop  of  London.  The  accusations 
against  him  were  examined  and  declared  void. 

During  the  short  time  that  he  was  again  in  power,  Fulham 
Palace  became  a  judgment  hall  for  heretics,  and  on  one 
occasion  ten  Essex  men,  two  women,  and  a  Dutchman  were 
tried  there  and  condemned  to  be  burnt  at  Stratford-le-Bow. 
There  is  a  tradition  that,  when  examining  heretics  at  Fulham, 
Bonner  was  accustomed  to  sit  in  a  chair  at  the  end  of  a 
winding  path  leading  through  a  shrubbery,  called  the  Monk's 
Walk,  and  it  was  in  this  garden  that  Thomas  Henshaw  and 
John  Willes  were  flogged  for  defying  him.  Henshaw,  who 
had  already  been  in  prison  for  some  eleven  weeks,  was 
brought  to  Fulham  and  put  in  the  stocks,  "  remaining  there 
all  night  on  bread  and  water."  The  next  day  the  bishop  and 
his  attendant  archdeacon  discoursed  with  him,  but  the  youth 
retorted  boldly,  whereupon  "  the  bishop  fumed  and  fretted 
that  for  anger  being  scarce  able  to  speak,  he  said  :  '  Dost 
thou  answer  my  archdeacon  so,  thou  naughty  boy  ?  I  shall 
handle  thee  well  enough  be  assured.'  " 

Bonner  then  sent  for  two  willow  wands,  and  "caused  him 
to  kneel  against  a  long  bench  in  an  arbour  in  his  garden," 
and  he  beat  him  "  till  for  weariness  he  was  obliged  to  leave 
off." 

Willes  was  treated  in  the  same  way,  the  bishop  "  having 
him  to  his  orchard,  there,  within  a  little  arbour,  with  his  own 
hands  beat  him  with  a  willow  wand," 


I02      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL   PALACES 

In  after  years  some  one  showed  Bonner  his  own  picture  in 
the  first  edition  of  Fox's  "  Book  of  Martyrs,"  "on  purpose  to 
vex  him  ";  but  the  bishop  only  laughed,  and  said :  "  A  vengeance 
on  the  foole  !     How  could  he  draw  my  picture  so  right !  " 

The  palace  chapel  was  sometimes  used  instead  of  the 
church  for  the  Administering  of  Articles  to  heretics :  as,  in 
1557,  when  four  prisoners  were  brought  by  Bonner's  orders 
to  Fulham,  "  and  there  in  his  private  chapel  within  his 
house,  he  judicially  propounded  unto  them  certain  Articles." 
Henshaw  was  also  brought  into  the  chapel  for  the  same 
purpose  after  he  had  been  beaten.  The  chapel  is  said  to 
have  stood  at  this  time  to  the  north-east  of  the  eastern 
quadrangle,  and  Thomas  Hankes,  who  had  scornfully  refused 
to  be  present  at  a  service  there,  "  came  down  and  walked 
between  the  hall  and  the  chapel  in  the  court  till  evensong 
was  over." 

In  1555,  the  deprived  bishop  of  Chester,  a  member  of  the 
reformed  Church,  John  Byrde  found  an  asylum  with  Bonner 
at  Fulham,  bringing  with  him  an  offering  of  a  dish  of  apples 
and  a  bottle  of  wine. 

On  the  accession  of  Elizabeth,  Bonner  was  again  deprived 
of  his  benefice,  and  nine  months  later,  again  imprisoned  in 
the  Marshalsea.  During  those  last  weeks  of  liberty  his  well- 
known  figure  was  the  butt  of  much  mockery,  to  which, 
however,  he  was  prompt  to  reply.  Once,  when  walking  in 
the  street  wearing  his  tippet  "  one  begged  it  of  him  (in 
scoffe)  to  line  a  coat ;  '  No,'  saith  he,  '  but  thou  shalt  have  a 
foole's  head  to  line  thy  cap  ! '  "  Again,  to  a  passer-by  who 
greeted  him  with :  "  Good-morrow,  Bishop  quondam,"  he 
replied  promptly,  "  Farewell  Knave  semper." 

Sir  John  Harrington,  writing  at  the  beginning  of  the 
reign  of  James  L,  remembered  the  fact  that  in  his  childhood, 


THE    PALACE    OF   FULHAM  103 

Bonner  was  still  alive,  "  unbishoped    and  went  sometimes 
abroad ;  but  I  was  so  young  then,  as  I  could  judge  nothing, 
and  he  was  so  hated  that  every  fat,  ill-favoured  fellow  that 
went  in  the  street,  they  would  say  that  was  Bonner."    Bishop 
Bonner   died  in  the    Marshalsea,  September   5,  1569,  and 
Edmund    Grindal,    then    Bishop    of  London,    wrote    from 
Fulham  to  Sir  William  Cecil,  describing  his  funeral.    Bonner 
was  considered  excommunicate  by  the  English  Church,  from 
which  he  had  "  never  desyred  absolution,  wherefore  by  the 
law   Christian   burial    might   have   been   denyed   him,    but 
we  thought  not  goode  to  deal  so  rigorously ;  and  therefore 
permitted  him  to  be  buried  in  St.  George's  Churchyard,  and 
the  same  to  be  done  not  in  the  day  solemnly,  but  in  the  night 
privily."      This    was  done    because   rumours   had   reached 
Grindal  that  several  Catholics,  friends  and  relations  of  the 
late  bishop,  had  arrived  in  London  "  intending  to  honour  his 
funeral  as  moche  as  they  coulde,"  and  he  feared  lest  the 
people  "  to  whom  Bonner  in  his  life  was  most  odious,  if  they 
had  seen   flocking  of   Papists  about   his   coffin  .  .  .  would 
have  been  mooved  with  indignation  and  so  some  quarrelling 
or  tumulte  might  have  ensued." 

At  this  date  the  vines  at  Fulham  were  renowned  for  their 
excellence,  the  grapes  having  the  reputation  of  ripening 
earlier  there  than  elsewhere.  As  Elizabeth  particularly  liked 
this  fruit,  the  bishop  used  to  send  her  each  autumn  a  present 
of  the  first  bunch.  It  so  happened,  however,  that  in  this 
year  the  grapes  did  not  ripen  as  well  as  usual,  and  in  a  post- 
script to  his  letter  Grindal  expressed  his  hope  that  they 
would  be  ready  at  the  end  of  the  following  week,  when  he 
would  send  some  to  the  queen's  majesty. 

His  hope  was  fulfilled,  and  the  grapes  were  brought  to 
the  Court  by  a  servant  at  about  the  date  he  mentioned  ; 


I04       ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

but  this  incident  was  nearly  the  means  of  bringing  the 
bishop  into  disgrace.  A  rumour  had  got  about  that  one  of 
his  servants  had  died  of  the  plague,  and  that  three  more 
were  ill.  Was  it  possible  that  with  infection  in  his  house- 
hold he  had  sent  a  member  of  it  to  the  Court !  The  bishop 
wrote  an  emphatic  explanation.  It  was  true  that  one  of  his 
men  had  died,  but  not  of  the  plague,  and  none  in  his  house 
were  sick.  "Neither  would  I  so  far  have  overseen  myself  as 
to  have  sent  to  her  majestie  if  I  had  not  been  most  assured 
that  my  man's  sickness  was  not  of  the  plague.  And  if  I 
suspected  any  such  thing  now,  I  would  not  keep  my  household 
together  as  I  do." 

Bishop  Grindal  had  been  chaplain  to  Ridley,  and  through- 
out Mary's  reign  he  had  lived  out  of  England.  It  was 
during  his  sojourn  in  Switzerland  that  he  first  saw  the 
tamarisk-tree,  a  specimen  of  which  he  brought  with  him  to 
England  on  his  return,  and  planted  in  his  garden  at  Fulham, 
"  where  the  soil  being  moist  and  fenny  well  complied  with 
the  nature  of  this  plant." 

A  good  deal  of  familiar  correspondence  appears  to  have 
passed  between  this  bishop  and  Sir  William  Cecil,  and  in 
1563,  hearing  that  the  secretary  was  ill,  Grindal  wrote  com- 
paring the  symptoms  with  those  he  had  himself  at  one  time 
experienced,  and  sending  him  a  sealed  glass  of  Thomas 
Gibson's  balsam. 

Grindal  was  translated  to  York  in  1570,  and  to  Canterbury 
six  years  later.  He  was  succeeded  in  the  Diocese  of  London 
by  Edwin  Sandys,  a  determined  Protestant  who  had  suffered 
imprisonment  under  Mary.  Bishop  Sandys  was  the  owner 
of  a  "  faire  brynded  dog  "  which  had  been  given  to  him  by 
Lady  Rich,  and  was  evidently  much  valued.  Not  long  after 
his  election,  this  dog  was  stolen  from  his  house  at  Fulham, 


THE    PALACE    OF    FULHAM  105 

and  the  bishop,  hearing  that  it  had  been  seen  near  Guildford, 
wrote  to  Mr.  More  who  lived  near  there,  and  begged  him  to 
assist  in  recovering  the  animal ;  while  Sir  Henry  Weston,  the 
bishop's  cousin,  was  also  asked  to  be  on  the  watch  for  it. 
Lady  Rich  was  probably  the  wife  of  the  Puritanical 
Lord  Rich,  whose  want  of  orthodoxy  was  the  cause  of 
violent  quarrels  between  him  and  Bishop  Aylmer. 

In  1576 — 7,  when  Sandys  was  translated  to  York,  he 
recommended  John  Aylmer  to  the  queen  to  take  his  place 
in  the  see  of  London,  and  when  Aylmer  arrived  in  Town,  he 
"  courteously  entertained  him  at  his  house,  and  upon  his 
desire  assisted  at  his  consecration,"  which  took  place  on 
March  22.  Moreover,  when  Sandys  took  his  departure  for 
York  he  left  various  articles  in  the  houses  belonging  to  the 
bishopric  for  the  use  of  the  new  bishop.  Aylmer  moved  by 
gratitude,  impetuously  declared  that  he  would  require 
nothing  for  dilapidations.  He  modified  this  generosity  a 
little  later,  and  said  that  "  he  would  be  contented  to  take 
3^100  in  full  satisfaction  for  them."  However,  after  a 
survey  of  his  new  estates  had  been  made,  he  repented  still 
further  of  his  haste,  for  the  repairs  needed  at  Fulham  alone 
amounted  to  3^159  i8s.  lod.  But  not  only  did  he  now 
require  the  archbishop  to  pay  for  the  repairs,  but  he  also 
demanded  the  entire  revenues  of  the  last  half-year,  from 
Michaelmas  till  Lady  Day,  although  Sandys  had  remained 
bishop  until  Candlemas.  A  lawsuit  followed  between  the 
two  ecclesiastics,  and  the  archbishop  expressed  his  indigna- 
tion in  no  measured  terms,  accusing  Aylmer  of  "  coloured 
covetousness,  and  an  envious  heart  covered  with  the  coat  of 
dissimulation."  The  judgment  was  given  against  Sandys, 
who  was  required  to  pay  ^^1,000  for  the  dilapidations. 

Aylmer  is  described  as  "  mean  of  stature,    but  of  courage 


io6      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL   PALACES 

great,  and  very  valiant  in  his  youth,  which  quahty  departed 
not  from  him  when  he  was  old  "  :  a  proof  of  which  was  the 
cudgelling  he  administered  in  defence  of  his  daughter's 
reputation  to  her  husband.  Dr.  Squire,  who,  not  content  with 
neglecting  her,  plotted  to  cast  a  slur  upon  her  reputation. 

The  bishop  was  hot-headed,  truculent,  and  quick  to  take 
up    any    quarrel.     Consequently    he    was    surrounded    by 
enemies,  and  tales  were  rife  against  him  at  Court.     Never- 
theless, he  remained  in  good  favour  with  the  queen  until  his 
death,  and  it  would  seem  that  he  had  a  certain  charm  of 
manner,  and  that,  especially  in  his  bearing  towards  women, 
he  was  gentle  and  courteous.     As  a  young  man  he  had  been 
tutor  to  Lady  Jane  Grey,  who  regarded  him  not  only  as  an 
instructor,   but   as  a    friend ;    and    discoursing  one  day   to 
Roger  Ascham  she  said  :  "  One  of  the  greatest  benefits  that 
ever  God  gave  me,  is  that  he  sent  me  so  sharp  and  severe 
parents  and  so  gentle  a  schoolmaster ;  for  when  I   am   in 
presence  either  of  father  or  mother,  whether  I   speak,  keep 
silence,  sit,  stand  or  go,  eat,  drink,  be  merry  or  sad,  be  sewing, 
playing,  dancing,  or  doing  anything  else,   I  must  do  it  as  it 
were  in  such  weight,  measure,  and  number,  even  so  perfectly 
as  God  made  the  world,  or  else  I  am  so  sharply  taunted,  so 
cruelly  threatened — yea,  presently,  sometimes  with  pinches, 
nipps  and  bobbs  and  other  ways  (which  I  will  not  name  for 
the  honour  I  bear  them)  so  without  measure  misordered  that 
I  think  myself  in  hell,  till  the  time  come  that  I  must  go  to 
Mr.  Aylmer  who  teacheth    me    so    gently,   with  such  fair 
allurements  to  learning  that  I  think  the  time  nothing  whiles 
I  am  with  him.     And  when  I  am  called  from  him,  I  fall  on 
weeping  because  whatsoever  I  do  else  but  learning  is  full  of 
grief,  trouble,  fear,  and  wholly  misliking  to  me." 

On  the  other  hand,  Aylmer  was  a  vigilent  persecutor  of  all 


THE    PALACE    OF    FULHAM  107 

who  diverged  to  either  side  of  the  narrow  line  of  the  English 
Church,  being  as  uncompromising  in  his  dealings  with  Puritans 
as  with  Catholics,  which  led  to  passionate  quarrels  between 
him  and  Lord  Rich,  and  afterwards  with  his  son. 

About  1580,  Lord  Rich,  the  son,  was  holding  Puritanical 
meetings  in  his  house  in  Essex,  and  giving  harbour  to  a  certain 
Mr.  Wright,  a  preacher  of  unorthodox  views.  This  Wright 
had  been  tutor  at  Cambridge  to  the  Earl  of  Essex,  whose 
sister  had  married  Rich.  Such  meetings  had  already  taken 
place  in  the  time  of  Lord  Rich's  father,  and  had  been  the 
cause  of  "  many  great  storms  "  between  him  and  the  bishop. 

Lord  Rich,  the  son,  was  no  more  amenable,  and  together 
with  "  his  bastard  uncle "  and  Wright,  he  came  to  the 
bishop's  house  at  Fulham,  and  demanded  licence  for  the 
latter  to  preach  throughout  the  diocese.  The  bishop  refused 
absolutely,  unless  Wright  would  submit  to  the  English 
Church,  whereupon  "  the  lord's  aforesaid  uncle  did  so  shake 
him  (the  bishop)  up,  that  he  said  he  was  never  so  abused  at 
any  man's  hands  since  he  was  born." 

The  matter  came  to  the  queen's  ears,  and  both  Lord  Rich 
and  Wright  were  tried  for  their  opinions  and  imprisoned. 

Aylmer  was  twice  vexed  by  accusations  of  spoiling  the 
woods  on  the  estates  of  the  see,  and  of  unlawfully  felling 
trees.  On  the  first  occasion,  he  replied  indignantly  that 
those  he  had  cut  down  were  pollards,  "  doated  and  decayed 
at  the  top."  He  owned,  however,  that  he  had  sold  timber 
to  the  value  of  ;^5oo  during  the  years  1577,  1578,  and  1579; 
but  then  had  he  not  also  in  the  same  time  paid  £1,800  to  the 
queen,  "besides  his  housekeeping  wherein  he  had  threescore 
persons  young  and  old"?  And,  when  at  Fulham,  he  bought 
all  his  fuel.  Nevertheless,  in  spite  of  such  considerations, 
the  queen  forbade  the  bishop  to  cut  down  any  more  trees. 


io8      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL   PALACES 

The  second  occasion  was  some  years  later,  when  a  Court 
musician,  called  Litchfield,  declared  that  the  bishop  had  been 
felling  the  elms  at  Fulham.  Aylmer  was  immediately  up  in 
arms.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  trees  in  the  park  were  in 
better  condition  now  than  they  had  been  before  his  time. 
"  And  for  the  out-woods  he  did  his  best  (both  by  suit  of 
law  and  by  diligent  looking  to  them)  to  meet  with  the 
outrage  of  the  borderers."  He  acknowledged  with  bitter- 
ness that  much  good  timber  had  been  felled,  but  that  was 
the  fault  of  his  predecessors  who  had  given  to  the  wood- 
wards a  large  grant  of  fees  of  dead  trees,  starvelings,  sear, 
and  decayed  trees,  under  cover  of  which  these  men  were 
carrying  away  all  the  sound  timber.  And  thus  not  only  was 
the  bishop  the  sufferer,  but  all  the  blame  was  visited  upon 
him.  And  what  was  more,  this  very  Litchfield,  who  was 
accusing  him,  had  asked  for  twenty  timber-trees,  and  had 
been  refused.  Moreover,  he  appealed  to  the  queen  and 
Court  to  bear  witness  to  the  falseness  of  this  rumour,  for  Her 
Majesty  "  had  lately  lodged  at  the  palace  there  ;  where  she 
misliked  nothing  but  that  her  lodgings  were  kept  from  all 
good  prospect  by  the  thickness  of  the  trees,  as  she  told  her 
vice-chancellor,  and  he  so  reported  to  the  bishop." 

Not  long  after  this  Dr.  Pern,  the  Dean  of  Ely,  and  a  friend 
of  Aylmer's,  was  dining  at  "  a  great  man's  table,"  where 
much  abuse  was  vented  upon  the  bishop  for  felling  the  elms 
at  Fulham.  Dr.  Pern  waited  his  opportunity,  and  then 
asked  how  long  it  was  since  the  trees  had  been  cut  down. 
"  Some  half  a  year  ago,"  was  the  reply.  "  Then,"  remarked 
Fern,  they  "  are  marvellously  grown  in  that  time.  For,  I 
assure  you,  I  was  there  within  these  four  days,  and  they 
seemed  to  be  two  hundred  years  old."  And  he  added  point 
to  his  statement  by  relating  the  story  of  the  queen's  criticism. 


THE    PALACE    OF   FULHAM  109 

In  spite  of  all  the  bishop  could  say,  and  the  defence  of  his 
friends,  his  innocence  was  only  half  believed,  and  the  incident 
was  not  forgotten,  giving  opportunity  for  a  taunt  on  one 
occasion  when  Aylmer  was  engaged  in  a  combat  of  words. 
The  bishop  being  involved  in  "  a  ruffle  with  a  mad  blade 
called  Maddocks,"  an  inhabitant  of  Fulham,  punned  angrily 
upon  his  name.  "  Thy  very  name,"  he  exclaimed,  "  expresseth 
thy  nature,  for  Maddocks  is  thy  name,  and  thou  art  as  mad 
a  beast  as  I  ever  talked  with."  "  By  your  favour,  sir," 
replied  Maddocks,  "  your  deeds  answer  your  name  righter 
than  mine ;  for  your  name  is  Elmar,  and  you  have  marred 
all  the  elms  in  Fulham  by  lopping  them." 

This  John  Maddocks  was  usher  of  the  exchequer  (hos- 
tiarhis  scaccarii)  in  Middlesex,  holding  also  the  offices  of 
marshal,  herald,  and  pleader  {barriarriore)  during  the  sessions 
of  the  itinerant  justices.  He  seems  to  have  been  a  turbulent 
fellow,  and  had  incessant  disputes  both  with  the  bishop  and 
the  townsfolk.  With  the  latter  he  quarrelled  concerning  a 
passage  to  a  piece  of  the  bishop's  ground.  With  the  bishop 
he  quarrelled  about  a  pew  in  the  parish  church,  and  on 
Easter  Day,  when  Aylmer  and  his  men  were  at  court,  he 
entered  the  church  "  in  a  warlike  manner  with  rapier  and 
target,"  and  disturbing  the  bishop's  daughters  in  their  seat, 
"  there  thrust  in  his  mother  and  sister."  Again  one  of  the 
bishop's  men,  who  was  executor  to  the  will  of  an  inhabitant 
of  Fulham,  defrauded  a  certain  shepherd  of  his  legacy. 
Maddocks  immediately  took  up  the  shepherd's  cause,  and 
appealed  to  the  court  of  requests.  The  bishop  asked  the 
court  to  discharge  his  man,  promising  himself  to  arrange 
the  matter.  The  court  refused,  and  Aylmer  sent  for 
Maddocks,  "  who  coming,  angry  words  happened."  After  this 
"divers  frays  "  also  "  happened,"  and  constant  brawls  took 


no      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

place  between  the  bishop's  servants,  "  who  would  not  hear 
their  master  abused,"  and  Maddocks  and  his  men. 

Before  long  Maddocks  complained  that  he  went  in  fear  of 
his  life,  and  he  demanded  a  warrant  to  arrest  the  bishop's 
"  cutters."  He  added  that  "  his  wife  was  with  child  and 
rested  since  the  last  assault  (in  which  he  had  been  wounded) 
in  a  very  bad  way." 

The  bishop  declared  that  he  had  already  bidden  his  men 
not  to  meddle  with  Maddocks,  who  had  been  the  aggressor, 
and  he  enumerated  a  long  list  of  lawless  deeds  which  were 
laid  to  this  man's  account.  Finally,  Maddocks  was  sum- 
moned before  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  and  forced  to 
ask  for  pardon  and  to  promise  "  that  he  would  ever  after 
have  a  reverent  regard  of  his  duty  towards  the  said  bishop." 

That  Aylmer  was  tenacious  of  his  rights  even  in  trifles  is 
shown  by  another  story.  Some  thieves  left  in  a  ditch  in 
Fulham  a  piece  of  cloth  which  they  had  stolen  from  some 
dyers  staying  at  the  Old  Swan  Inn.  The  bishop  finding  it, 
had  it  watched  for  a  night  or  two,  and  as  neither  the  rightful 
owners  nor  the  thieves  appeared  he  took  it  for  his  own. 
Some  time  after  the  dyers  claimed  it,  and  the  thieves,  who 
were  caught,  acknowledged  it  to  be  theirs,  "  but  upon  con- 
ference with  learned  lawyers  it  was  found  that  the  ownership 
of  the  cloth  was  altered  and  transferred  to  the  liberties."  One 
version  of  the  story  says  that,  though  the  thieves  were  hung, 
the  bishop  kept  the  cloth  as  his  right ;  another  relates  that 
he  gave  part  of  it  back  to  the  owners. 

Aylmer  appears  to  have  pursued  all  occupations  with  the 
same  impetuosity  and  thoroughness.  Amongst  other  things 
he  was  exceedingly  fond  of  bowls,  at  which  he  used  to  play 
at  Fulham  on  Sunday  afternoons  after  evening  prayer. 
"  And  herein  he  would  be  so  eager  that  he  sometimes  had 


THE    PALACE    OF    FULHAxM  in 

such  expressions  in  his  game  as  exposed  him  to  the  censure 
of  many,  especially  of  his  enemies."  Frequently  the  bishop 
would  be  seen  running  after  his  bowl,  excitingly  crying,  "  Rub, 
rub,  rub  !  "  or  "  The  devil  go  with  it  !  "  while  some  one 
wishing  to  see  him  when  he  was  playing  was  asked  to  wait, 
as  "  it  was  a  pity  to  trouble  him  lest  he  swore."  He  exerted 
himself  with  equal  energy  in  putting  his  property  in  order, 
and  he  erected  new  buildings,  repaired  and  added  to  old  ones, 
restored  bridges,  cleansed  ditches  and  sewers,  and  spent  more 
on  the  estate  than  any  Bishop  of  London  had  done  for  forty 
years. 

Aylmer  was  said  to  keep  "  a  good  house  " — that  is  to  say, 
it  came  up  to  the  requisite  standard  of  magnificence  and 
hospitality ;  and  the  members  of  his  household  numbered 
according  to  one  account,  sixty,  and  to  another,  eighty. 

Elizabeth  again  stayed  at  Fulham  in  January,  1588, 
when  she  made  a  progress  thither  on  her  way  to  Hounslow 
"  ahawking." 

Bishop  Aylmer  died  at  Fulham  Palace  on  June  4  or  5, 
1594,  aged  seventy-three,  and  Richard  Fletcher,  the  father  of 
John  Fletcher,  the  dramatist,  was  translated  from  the  see  of 
Worcester  to  succeed  him.  Fletcher,  who  had  been  Dean  of 
Peterborough  in  1583,  had  attended  Mary,  Queen  of  Scots, 
at  her  execution,  urging  her  up  to  the  last  to  change  her 
faith.  He  is  said  to  have  been  a  handsome  man,  but  of 
rather  haughty  manners.  His  pride,  however,  was  "only  in 
gate  and  gesture-deep,  not  sinking  to  his  heart,"  so  that  he 
was  "causelessly  condemned  for  a  proud  man,  as  who  was 
a  goodly  hypocrite  and  far  more  humble  than  he  appeared." 
Shortly  after  he  became  bishop,  Fletcher  roused  Elizabeth's 
wrath  by  marrying  a  second  time,  his  wife  being  the  widow 
of  Sir  John  Baker  and  sister  to  Sir  George  Gifford.     For  six 


112      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

months  he  was  suspended  from  his  duties,  and  when  he  was 
at  last  forgiven  and  reinstated  it  was  said  that  the  joy  killed 
him.  "  Certain  it  is  the  queen  being  pacified  and  he  in  great 
jollity  with  his  faire  lady  and  her  carpets  and  cushions  in 
his  bedchamber,  he  died  suddenly  taking  tobacco  in  his  chair, 
saying  to  the  man  that  stood  by  him,  whom  he  loved  very 
well,  '  Oh,  boy,  I  die.'  "  Fletcher  was  at  Fulham  at  the 
time  of  his  death,  which  took  place  on  June  15,  1596.  It 
was  during  his  short  episcopate  that  the  great  hall  began  by 
Fitzjames  was  completed,  and  his  dated  cypher  is  placed  in 
one  of  the  windows. 

From  the  lost  churchwardens'  books,  quoted  by  Lysons, 
Queen  Elizabeth  twice  visited  Bishop  Bancroft  at  Fulham — 
once  in  1600  and  again  in  1602;  but  either  one  of  these  dates 
is  an  error,  or  else  she  was  also  there  a  third  time,  in  1601. 

On  August  I  in  this  last  year  Thomas  Lowe  offered  his 
"  poor  house  here  at  Putney  "  to  Sir  Robert  Cecil,  as  he  had 
heard  that  the  queen  intended  going  to  Fulham  on  the 
following  Tuesday  for  two  days  or  more,  and  he  knew  well 
"  that  the  receipt  of  my  lord  of  London's  house  will  not  con- 
veniently be  able  to  receive  such  of  her  honourable  followers 
as  most  commonly  attend  and  are  near  her  Majesty,  whereof 
I  observe  Mr.  Secretary  to  [be]  the  chief  and  principal." 

This  visit  was  unfortunate,  for  on  August  9  two  yeomen 
broke  into  the  palace  and  stole  a  silver  salt-cellar  worth  £4, 
and  belonging  to  "  the  lady  the  Queen  Elizabeth,  the  said 
queen  in  her  royal  majesty  being  then  and  there  at  Fulham 
and  in  the  said  house."  The  bolts  and  bars  of  the  palace 
do  not  appear  to  have  been  very  sound  at  this  time,  for  in  the 
following  year  another  thief  "  broke  burglariously  "  into  the 
bishop's  house  at  Fulham  and  stole  "  five  carpettes  of  divers 
colours  worth  ten  pounds." 


THE    PALACE   OF    FULHAM  113 


Mr.  Lowe's  offer  of  his  house  to  the  secretary  suggests  that 
the  condition  of  the  palace  made  accommodation  difficult 
for  a  great  retinue,  and  two  or  three  years  later,  when 
Bancroft  invited  Sir  Fulke  Greville  to  stay  at  Fulham, 
he  limited  his  invitation,  stating  that  there  would  be  "  lodg- 
ing in  his  house "  for  Sir  Fulke  and  two  men,  while  the 
horses  were  to  be  put  up  in  the  town. 

The  repairing  of  the  huge  buildings  on  their  estates  was  a 
burden  handed  down  from  one  bishop  to  another,  and  a 
burden  that  was  never  permanently  diminished.  In  1598 
Bancroft  complained  that  he  had  spent  ^^300  on  Fulham 
Palace  alone.  He  also  compared  in  this  year  the  revenues 
of  the  see  with  his  expenditure,  showing  that  he  was  3^450 
out  of  pocket.  The  income  of  the  see  was  ^1,000,  but  in 
first-fruits,  subsidies,  and  fees  for  patents  he  had  spent  ^^570, 
while  his  ordinary  charges  for  housekeeping,  wages,  and 
liveries,  "  which  without  offence  cannot  be  well  abated  doe 
amount  per  annum  to  £y6o."  Added  to  this  was  the  cost  of 
sending  two  horses  to  Ireland  at  the  rate  of  j^6o  each. 
Former  bishops,  he  declared,  had  made  ^^400  yearly  or  more 
by  the  wood  on  the  estate  ;  but  not  only  had  Bancroft  had  to 
buy  timber  for  repairs,  but  he  also  had  to  burn  sea-coals  at 
Fulham. 

Between  160 1  and  1604  the  bishop  spent  ;^io6  19s.  6|^. 
on  repairs  at  Fulham  and  London.  This  included  the 
"  digging  up,  scouring,  and  covering  of  the  kitchen  vault  "  at 
Fulham,  and  the  repairing  of  the  landing-bridge,  which  was 
done  by  a  carpenter  and  his  man  in  two  days  ;  a  couple  of 
boats  being  hired  for  the  work,  and  four  labourers  helping 
"  during  the  ebb." 

Bancroft  attended  Elizabeth  in  her  last  illness.  Just 
before  his  coronation,  James  I.  visited  the  bishop  at  Fulham, 

E.E.P.  I 


114      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 


and  in  1604  promoted  him  to  the  primacy.  In  1627 
Charles  I.  and  Henrietta  Maria  dined  at  Fulham  with 
Bishop  Montaigne. 

William  Laud  was  Bishop  of  London  from  1628  to  1633, 
in  which  3'ear  he  was  translated  to  Canterbury.  An  amusing 
letter,  dated  from  Fulham,  was  written  by  him,  when  arch- 
bishop-elect, to  Sir  Thomas  Roe,  thanking  Lady  Roe  for  a 
cat  she  had  sent  him.  The  cat,  she  said,  had  come  from 
Smyrna  ;  and  while  he  expressed  his  gratitude  for  it,  where- 
ever  it  came  from,  he  hoped  she  had  no  intention  of  scratch- 
ing her  friends  with  any  token  she  sent  them. 

William  Juxon,  who  was  chosen  to  succeed  him  as  bishop 
of  London,  was  his  great  friend,  and  after  Laud's  arrest  he 
went  to  see  him  in  the  Tower.  It  was  also  Bishop  Juxon 
who  read  the  service  on  the  morning  of  the  king's  execution, 
and  gave  him  the  Sacrament.  He  alone  of  all  the  king's 
friends  was  allowed  to  be  with  him  on  the  scaffold,  and  it 
was  to  him  that  Charles  I.  spoke  his  last  word  as  he  laid  his 
head  on  the  block — "Remember." 

Juxon  himself  escaped  all  censure  from  the  Parliament, 
although  he  was  a  bishop  and  for  some  years  treasurer,  the 
white  staff  of  office  having  been  given  to  him  March  6,  1635. 
He  resigned  it  in  1641  ;  but  for  several  years  he  remained 
unmolested  at  Fulham,  where  he  was  occasionally  visited  by 
some  of  "the  grandees,  and  found  respect  from  all,  yet 
walked  steadily  in  his  old  paths." 

In  1647  Fulham  Palace  was  sold  by  the  Parliament  to 
Colonel  Edmund  Harvey  for  £7M7  8s.  lod.  ;  the  deed  of 
sale  describes  it  as  the  site  of  the  manor  with  "  one  private 
chappell,  and  all  buildings,  outhouses,  dove-houses,  barnes, 
stables,  granaries,  coach-houses,  courts,  courtyards,  orchards, 
gardens,   walkes,    fishponds,    pumps,  water-courses    thereto 


Photo.  I'.vury  U alker. 
Wll.I.IAM    |l\(1N,    AkcIIHISHOP    OV   CANTERBURY. 
Prom  his  portrait  in  t/tc  Xatioiial  Portrait  Gallery. 


THE    PALACE    OF    FULHAM  115 

belonging,  and  two  foot-bridges,  and  one  great  bridge,  and 
three  closes  of  pasture  called  the  warren,  which  premises  are 
all  encompassed  with  a  moat,  about  two  poles  over,  in  most 
parts  thereof  flowes  and  draynes  att  pleasure,  and  doe 
contayne  together  within  the  said  moate  thirtie-six  acres  and 
a  halfe  by  admeasurement."  There  were  then  calculated  to 
be  about  700  trees  within  the  palace  grounds.  One  hundred 
trees  grew  in  the  Green  Lane  next  the  moat,  and  ten  trees 
in  the  hedge  of  this  same  lane.  There  were  240  willows  by 
the  causeway  along  the  water-side,  which,  with  the  rest  of 
the  wood  in  the  parish,  were  valued  at  ^^689  5s.  ^d.  There 
were  osier  and  reed-grounds  on  the  banks  of  the  Thames 
near  the  landing-stage,  and  the  royalty  of  salmon-fishing  in 
the  river  within  the  bounds  of  the  manor  was  valued  at  30^-. 
yearly.     The  demesne-lands  were  tithe-free. 

Edmund  Harvey,  the  son  of  a  fishmonger,  had  himself 
been  a  mercer.  He  was  one  of  the  commissioners  at  the 
trial  of  Charles  I.,  but  he  did  not  agree  with  the  verdict,  nor 
did  he  sign  the  warrant  for  the  execution.  During  his  pos- 
session of  Fulham  Palace  he  entertained  Cromwell  there 
with  much  display  and  magnificence,  but  shortly  after,  in 
1655,  he  was  arrested  for  defrauding  the  Parliament,  and 
was  imprisoned  in  the  Tower.  He  returned  to  Fulham  for 
one  month  in  the  following  January  on  ^10,000  security  that 
he  would  return  at  the  end  of  that  time.  However,  his 
frauds  were  charged  upon  his  estate,  and  he  was  definitely 
released  in  February,  thenceforward  living  at  Fulham  until 
the  Restoration,  In  1660  he  was  tried  as  a  regicide  and 
condemned  to  death,  but  the  fact  that  he  had  not 
signed  the  warrant  saved  his  life,  and  the  sentence  was 
changed  to  one  of  perpetual  imprisonment.  Probably  as 
Colonel    Harvey    had    used    Fulham    Palace    as    his    own 

I    2 


ii6      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

residence,  the  buildings  had  not  been  damaged  in  the  same 
way  as  those  of  Lambeth  and  other  episcopal  dwellings ;  but, 
nevertheless,  Bishop  Sheldon  spent  considerable  sums  on  its 
restoration,  and  he  is  said  to  have  rebuilt  portions  of  the 
eastern  quadrangle  which  have  since  been  pulled  down. 

Sheldon  had  only  been  three  3-ears  Bishop  of  London  when 
Juxon,  then  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  died,  and  he  was 
promoted  to  the  primacy.  He  was  much  in  favour  with 
Charles  II.  by  reason  of  his  political  astuteness.  Bishop 
Burnet,  while  acknowledging  his  charity  and  generosity, 
reproaches  him  with  a  certain  falseness.  His  manner  was 
urbane  and  cheerful  to  excess,  and  his  actions  hardly  tallied 
with  his  expressions  of  friendship.  Sheldon  was  also  accused 
of  regarding  religion  purely  as  a  matter  of  policy,  referring  to 
it  as  if  it  were  "  an  engine  of  government."  That  he  was 
scarcely  spiritual-minded  was  admitted  even  by  his  chaplain, 
Samuel  Parker,  who,  while  describing  him  as  "  very  assiduous 
at  prayers,"  goes  on  to  say  that  he  "  did  not  set  so  great  a 
value  on  them  as  others  did,"  but  rather  held  that  the  leading 
of  a  good  life  was  more  important  than  any  worship.  And 
he  was  accustomed  to  say  to  the  young  noblemen,  "  who  by 
their  parent's  commands  resorted  to  him  daily,  '  Let  it  be 
your  principal  care  to  become  honest  men.'  " 

The  next  bishop,  Humphrey  Henchman,  had,  while  a 
prebendary  of  Salisbury,  helped  Charles  II.  in  his  escape 
after  the  Battle  of  Worcester.  He  is  the  only  bishop  who  is 
buried  within  Fulham  parish  church.  His  gentleness  and 
generosity  made  him  much  beloved,  and  thirty  years  after 
his  death  Bowack  found  that  his  memory  was  still  held  in 
such  veneration  "  that  several  who  knew  him  can't  mention 
his  name  even  now  without  unusual  emotion."  Bishop 
Henchman's  successors  kept  up  the  tradition  of  open-handed 


THE    PALACE    OF   FULHAM  117 

generosity,  and  under  Dr.  Henry  Compton  (1675 — 1713)  the 
inhabitants  of  Fulham  continued  to  relish  the  "  bountiful 
housekeeping  "  and  the  charity  they  frequently  received  at 
the  palace. 

In  describing  Fulham  in  1705,  Bowack  mentions  the 
"  private  stairs  to  take  water  at "  belonging  to  the  palace, 
and  he  also  refers  to  the  library,  which  he  calls  very  choice, 
it  having  been  increased  by  gifts  from  Dr.  Compton. 

It  was  under  this  bishop  that  the  gardens  of  Fulham 
Palace  attained  their  greatest  fame.  He  was  an  enthusiastic 
botanist,  and  many  rare  trees  were  imported  by  him  and 
planted  in  the  palace  grounds. 

"  The  gardens  round  this  house,"  writes  Bowack,  "  as  they 
are  now  improved  by  his  lordship  are  very  fine  and  enter- 
taining, and  the  kindness  of  the  soyle  and  great  plenty  of 
water  makes  them  very  proper  for  the  breeding  of  some 
choice  foreign  plants,  of  which  there  is  a  very  valuable 
collection.  There  ia  likewise  a  small  park  adjoining,  which 
with  the  gardens,  is  moated  all  round  by  a  large  canal  well 
stored  with  fish  ;  in  and  upon  the  banks  of  which  are  five 
or  six  choice  physical  plants  not  discovered  to  grow  naturally 
in  any  other  part  of  England." 

In  1688,  Dr.  Compton  was  suspended  from  his  duties  by 
James  II.  for  refusing  to  inhibit  Dr.  Sharp,  Rector  of  St. 
Giles-in-the-Fields,  who  had  preached  against  Catholicism, 
and  he  solaced  himself  by  retiring  to  Fulham  and  devoting 
himself  yet  more  entirely  to  his  garden.  Amongst  the  many 
foreign  trees  planted  by  him  were  the  Virginian  flowering 
maple,  the  cut-leaved  jessamine,  the  Virginian  sumach,  and 
the  red  horse-chestnut.  John  Evelyn  visited  Fulham  in 
October,  1681,  when  he  saw  the  Sedum  arborescens  in  flower; 
and   in   1687,   the   Rev.  John  Ray,  the  naturalist,  wrote  an 


ii8      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

account  of  the  North  American  trees  to  be  found  there. 
A  great  number  of  these  trees  were  still  to  be  seen  in  1751, 
when  Sir  William  Watson  wrote  a  statement  of  what  was 
there,  which  was  read  before  a  meeting  of  the  Royal  Society. 
Some  years  later,  1793,  the  Rev.  Daniel  Lysons  made  a 
survey  of  the  gardens,  and  he  found  the  number  much 
diminished.  Amongst  those  he  saw,  he  mentions  two 
specimens  of  the  cedar  of  Libanus,  which  had  been  planted 
in  1683,  the  larger  of  the  two  measuring  7  feet  9  inches  in 
girth";  while  near  the  porter's  lodge  was  a  row  of  limes  of 
obviously  great  age,  one  being  13  feet  3  inches  round. 
Sixteen  years  after,  Lysons  went  there  again,  and  many  of 
the  trees  he  had  noted  before  had  disappeared,  and  of  those 
remaining,  many  were  decayed  with  age.  The  great  lime, 
however,  was  still  there,  and  at  that  time  measured  14  feet 
I  inch  in  girth. 

Unfortunately,  Compton's  immediate  successor.  Dr.  John 
Robinson,  knew  little  and  cared  less,  about  horticulture,  and 
he  allowed  many  of  the  valuable  trees  and  shrubs  to  be 
disposed  of  by  the  gardener. 

Dr.  Robinson  was  more  concerned  with  the  palace  itself, 
and  the  year  after  his  election  to  the  see,  he  petitioned 
Archbishop  Tenison  for  leave  to  pull  down  part  of  the  vast 
building.  He  reiterated  the  complaint  of  his  predecessors 
that  the  house  was  ruinous,  and  "  for  many  years  past  has 
been  a  great  burden  and  expense." 

In  repl)%  a  commission  was  appointed  in  July,  1715,  to 
survey  the  buildings,  Sir  John  Vanbrugh,  Christopher  Wren, 
and  the  rectors  of  Chelsea,  Kensington,  and  Barnes,  being 
amongst  the  commissioners.  According  to  their  report,  the 
bishop's  request  was  reasonable.  The  portion  he  proposed 
to  demolish  consisted  of  "  all  the  buildings  lying  north  of 


THE    PALACE    OF    FULHAM  iig 

the  great  dining-room,  with  the  bake-house  and  pastry-house 
adjoining  the  kitchen."  Even  after  these  were  pulled  down, 
there  would  still  remain  some  fiftj^  or  sixty  rooms  besides  the 
chapel,  hall,  and  kitchen,  and  these,  they  judged,  would  be 
"  sufficient  for  the  use  of  the  present  lord  bishop  and  his 
successors  and  their  families."  The  necessary  permission 
was  granted,  and  the  buildings  were  destroyed.  The  great 
hall  was  repaired  in  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  by 
Bishop  Sherlock,  whose  arms  are  carved  in  wood  over  the 
fire-place,  and  it  is  he  who  built  the  present  great  dining- 
room. 

Richard  Osbalderton,  who  died  at  Fulham  in  1764,  after 
being  bishop  only  two  years,  left  j^i,ooo  to  be  spent  on  the 
palace,  and  Bishop  Terrick,  his  successor,  used  the  money  to 
build  a  new  east  front  terminating  at  each  end  in  a  squat 
tower  and  a  suit  of  rooms  facing  the  river.  This  last  is 
described  by  Bishop  Porteus  (1787 — i8og)  as  "  a  very  com- 
modious appartment  consisting  of  three  rooms  above  and 
three  below."  The  older  chapel  was  done  away  with  by 
Terrick,  and  several  small  rooms  on  the  north  side  of  the 
eastern  court  were  thrown  together  to  form  another,  53  feet 
by  16  feet.  It  was  fitted  up  with  wainscot  brought  from  the 
London  palace  in  Aldersgate  Street,  whence  the  greater  part 
of  the  painted  glass  also  was  brought. 

When  Bishop  Porteus  first  came  to  Fulham,  in  the  summer 
of  1788,  an  old  accacia,  one  of  Dr.  Compton's  plantations, 
stood  by  the  venerable  gateway.  The  approach  to  the 
palace  was  then  a  stately  avenue  of  elms,  372  yards  in 
length,  but  most  of  these  trees  have  since  been  cut  down. 
A  walk,  also  for  the  greater  part  of  the  way  under  elms,  led 
round  the  grounds  including  the  kitchen  garden  and  the 
shrubbery.     The  Monk's  Walk  and  Bonner's  chair  were  still 


I20      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL   PALACES 

to  be  seen  at  this  date.  On  the  south  side  of  the  house  an 
embankment  had  been  raised  to  prevent  the  high  tides  from 
flooding  the  grounds,  and  along  the  top  of  this  embankment 
was  a  public  foot-path  called  the  Bishop's  Walk.  This  was 
the  way  to  church  for  a  great  part  of  the  inhabitants  of 
Fulham,  and  Bishop  Porteus  considered  that  "they  enlivened 
it  with  their  numbers  and  their  neat  Sunday  clothes."  The 
schools  in  particular  pleased  the  bishop's  eye,  and  he  declared 
that  "  the  female  children,  walking  two  and  two  in  their 
white  dresses  between  the  large  green  trees  on  each  side  of 
them,  form  the  prettiest  and  most  picturesque  processions 
that  can  be  imagined." 

The  great  dining-room  built  by  Sherlock,  he  describes  as 
a  very  fine  room,  "  of  exact  Palladian  proportion,  36  feet  by 
24  feet,  and  18  feet  in  height."  The  portrait  of  Bishop 
Sherlock  was  given  by  a  friend  of  his  to  Bishop  Porteus, 
and  it  was  hung  by  him  over  the  fire-place  in  this  room. 
Unfortunately  the  floor  had  been  originally  placed  on  the 
earth,  and  Dr.  Porteus  found  it  to  be  so  rotten  that  it  was 
necessary  to  completely  relay  it,  hollowing  away  the  ground 
for  three  feet  underneath.  The  library  was  then  a  galler}', 
48  feet  long  by  12  feet  3  inches  wide,  with  a  bow  window  of 
9  feet  in  depth,  looking  out  over  the  lawn  to  a  grove  of  trees 
partly  planted  by  this  bishop.  A  good  library  was  the  one 
thing  he  considered  lacking,  and  he  had  once  contemplated 
building  one,  even  going  so  far  as  to  draw  the  plan.  But 
the  scheme  went  no  further  in  his  lifetime  ;  he  left  it  to 
be  accomplished  by  those  who  came  after  him,  and  he 
bequeathed  to  it  his  collection  of  books. 

Dr.  Porteus  put  Gothic  windows  with  coloured  borders 
into  several  parts  of  the  house :  at  the  foot  of  the  great 
staircase,  on  the  first  landing  at  the  end  of  the  long  passage 


riwto.  I:iiin-y  ll'alie 

Brii.by  Porteus,  Bishop  of  London. 

Fiviii  his  fiortinit  in  the  yational  J'oi trait  CalUry. 


THE    PALACE    OF   FULHAM  121 

which  led  from  the  hall  to  the  lawn,  and  also  in  a  small 
cabinet  which  he  had  *'  fitted  up  as  a  monk's  cell  near  the 
library,  and  made  use  of  in  the  early  hours  of  the  morning 
before  breakfast." 

It  was  this  bishop  who  began  to  collect  the  portraits  of 
the  bishops  of  London  since  the  Reformation,  some  of  which 
hang  in  the  dining-room  and  some  in  the  library  which 
bears  his  name.  He  also  spent  a  100  guineas  upon  cleansing 
the  moat. 

In  1814 — 5  Bishop  Howley  rebuilt  the  east  front,  sweeping 
away  practically  all  the  buildings  put  up  by  Terrick, 
including  the  towers,  the  library,  and  the  chapel.  On  the 
site  of  the  last  he  built  the  Porteus  Library.  He  used  the 
great  hall  as  an  unconsecrated  chapel,  sub-dividing  it  with 
a  lath-and-plaster  partition ;  but  under  Dr.  Tait  it  was 
restored  to  its  former  condition. 

Dr.  Howley  also  altered  and  modernized  the  gardens — a 
work  which  was  continued  by  his  successor,  Bishop  Blom- 
field  (1828 — 1856).  Like  Compton,  Dr.  Blomfield  was 
deeply  interested  in  botany,  and  the  soil  at  Fulham  gave 
him  scope  to  grow  various  new  and  rare  plants.  He  only 
erred,  according  to  his  son's  account,  in  not  being  sufficiently 
ruthless  with  the  axe. 

In  spite  of  Dr.  Howley's  alterations,  he  found  a  great 
deal  yet  to  be  done  to  the  palace.  The  first  of  the  courts 
was  in  a  bad  state  of  dilapidation,  and  he  rebuilt  one  wing 
of  it.  He  new-roofed  the  house  and  built  additional  rooms. 
Besides  this  he  had  the  moat  cleaned,  the  sluices  remade, 
the  river  embankments  restored,  and  he  caused  one  of  the 
water-meadows  to  be  raised  by  several  feet. 

During  the  early  days  of  his  episcopacy,  while  he  still  had 
health  and   strength,   many  men   of  note   used  to  frequent 


122      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

Fulham,  amongst  whom  were  Wordsworth  and  Sir  Henry 
Holland.  Dr.  Blomfield  loved  Fulham,  and  always  regarded 
it  as  far  more  his  home  than  the  London  house ;  and  when 
his  shattered  health  forced  him  to  resign  in  September,  1856, 
he  was  permitted  to  remain  at  Fulham  for  his  life.  He 
died  there  in  the  following  August,  and  was  buried  in  the 
churchyard. 

The  development  of  Fulham  into  part  of  London  occurred 
at  a  later  date  than  that  of  Lambeth,  and  its  character  is 
essentially  different.  Endless  rows  of  small  flats  and  houses 
have  been  built,  which  have  the  indefinable  aspect  of  being 
on  the  outskirts,  while  the  activity  of  the  streets  appears  to 
be  to  a  great  extent  local. 

In  the  midst  of  these  surroundings  the  Palace  stands 
aloof,  separated  from  them  by  its  age,  its  history,  and  its 
sedate  beauty.  Though  it  can  no  longer  be  looked  upon  as 
the  country  house  of  the  bishops,  yet,  in  the  centre  of  its 
moat-enclosed  grounds,  half-hidden  by  the  trees,  it  gives  an 
impression  not  only  of  distance  from  the  metropolis,  but  also 
of  a  certain  remoteness  from  the  present  day. 


5^arnpam  Cae^fe 


A  BOVE  the  main  road  from  the  south-western 
/^  counties  to  the  east  stands  Farnham  Castle  in 
Y  ^  the  midst  of  a  dehghtful  country  surrounded  by 
heath  and  woodland,  pastures  carved  out  of  its 
park,  and  hop-gardens  sheltered  by  the  slopes  of  chalk  hills. 
It  overlooks  the  little  market  town  from  which  it  is 
approached  by  a  steep  but  wide  street  lined  by  irregular 
houses  save  on  one  side  near  the  castle,  where  the  cottages 
stand  in  a  neat  white  row,  each  with  its  flight  of  steps  and 
green  wooden  porch.  From  the  street  the  castle  can 
scarcely  be  seen  above  the  massive  wall  which  encircles  it, 
or  through  the  dark  boughs  of  cedars  brought  from  the  hills 
of  Lebanon.  One  part  only,  the  dark-red  entrance-tower, 
built  in  the  sixteenth  century  by  Bishop  Foxe,  stands  out 
prominently  above  the  town.  Within  the  walls  are  the 
well-kept  beds  of  a  peaceful  garden  whose  southern  slopes 
catch  all  the  sun,  while  its  northern  parts  are  the  turf- 
covered  sides  of  the  wide  dry  moat  which  surrounds  the 
keep. 

The  house  itself  is  built  about  a  roughly  triangular  court, 
the  grey  broken  walls  of  the  keep  at  its  blunted  northern 
apex,  the  great  hall  occupying  nearly  all  the  length  of  its 
southern  base,  the  old  chapel  and  kitchen  on  one  side,  more 
modern  buildings  on  the  other.  The  castle  plainly  shows 
the  vicissitudes  of   an   existence   which   has    extended    over 


124      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

many  centuries.  Here  a  strong  wall  has  faced  all  weathers 
since  the  days  of  the  Norman  bishop,  Henry ;  there  the 
brick-work  of  Bishop  Foxe's  tower  and  the  lofty  chimneys 
above  it  call  to  mind  the  days  of  Tudor  sovereigns ;  every- 
where repairs  and  alterations,  added  wings  and  changed 
plans,  show  the  gradual  growth  from  the  strong  fortress  of 
a  Norman  soldier-bishop  to  the  comfortable  home  of  a 
twentieth-century  prelate. 

Behind  the  castle  is  the  "  Little  Park  "  which,  in  spite  of 
its  name,  contains  three  hundred  acres  and  has  a  circuit 
of  some  three  miles.  Its  chief  landmarks  are  a  noble  avenue 
of  elms  upon  the  rising  ground  to  the  east  of  the  castle,  and 
the  keeper's  lodge,  formerly  a  bare  and  ugly  building, 
standing  out  upon  a  mound,  but  now  made  beautiful  by  a 
surrounding  enclosure  of  trees.  The  *'  Little  Park  "  was  so 
called  to  distinguish  it  from  the  "  Great  Park  "  of  the  bishop 
which  extended  further  to  the  west  of  the  castle.  This  was 
broken  up  in  the  time  of  Charles  II.,  and  subsequent 
enclosures  and  the  sale  of  the  woods  and  pastures  thus 
formed  have  left  the  castle  with  the  "  Little  Park  "  alone. 

Early  in  the  ninth  century  the  bishops  of  Winchester  had 
many  an  acre  in  the  valley  of  Farnham ;  but  it  was  in 
A.D.  858  that  St.  Swithun,  then  bishop,  gave  to  Ethelbald 
his  land  there,  and  that  the  king  agreed  that  at  his  death  it 
should  be  restored  to  Swithun  and  his  successors.  At  an  early 
date  there  was  formed  on  the  hill-side  a  great  earthen  mound, 
protected  on  the  north  and  east  by  a  deep  fosse,  and  on 
the  south  and  west  by  the  steep  fall  of  the  ground.  Men 
sought  its  neighbourhood  and  gathered  near  the  roadway 
below,  looking  to  their  bishop  for  protection  and  for  justice. 
Even  since  British  times  a  track  had  passed  along  the  downs 
above  the  river-valley,  and  the  road  which  now  follows  the 


FARNHAM    CASTLE  125 

line  of  the  village  street  still  brings  many  a  traveller  to 
the  metropolis  from  the  great  centres  of  the  south,  from 
Southampton  with  its  busy  port,  or  Winchester,  so  closely 
connected  for  over  a  thousand  years  with  the  little  town  in 
the  valley. 

A  market  grew  up  in  the  street ;  the  townspeople  were 
busied  first  with  making  cloth,  and  in  later  years  the  country 
around  became  noted  for  its  corn  and  for  the  fine  quality 
of  its  hops,  preferred  above  those  of  any  neighbouring 
parish.  The  townsmen  began  to  begrudge  the  master  of 
the  castle  his  dues,  his  endless  exactions  for  this  service  or 
that,  and  his  tiresome  demands  of  fealty  and  suit  at  court. 
They  wanted  to  have  a  court  of  their  own  in  which  to  settle 
their  disputes,  and  they  longed  to  be  free  burgesses  as  were 
the  London  merchants  who  passed  through  their  town. 
Gradually  the  bishops  yielded  to  their  demands  and  gave 
them  dearly  valued  charters.  Then  came  a  time  when  the 
stronghold  brought  the  town  more  harm  than  good.  It 
was  the  fortress  on  the  hill  that  brought  all  the  distress  of 
civil  war  to  the  burgesses,  and.  Royalists  as  they  were,  they 
were  glad  to  pave  their  streets  with  the  stones  of  the  keep 
which  had  brought  to  their  town  the  hated  Parliamentary 
soldiers.  Now  the  bishop's  home  overlooks  townsfolk 
who  have  forgotten  even  the  bitter  feeling  of  the  last 
century,  and  the  sight  of  the  castle  above  them  brings  only 
peace,  goodwill,  and  gratitude  to  the  minds  of  the  people 
below. 

It  was  Bishop  Henry  of  Blois  who  first  began  to  build 
the  massive  keep  upon  the  earthwork  which  till  then  had 
served  to  protect  the  town.  He  was  a  great  builder ;  in 
1 138  he  had  begun  to  raise  for  himself  at  Winchester  the 
stronghold  known  as  Wolvesey  Palace.     Moreover,  he  was 


126      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

a  man  of  military  knowledge  and  of  great  influence.  As 
Papal  Legate,  his  interest  had  gone  far  to  procure  for  his 
own  brother,  Stephen,  the  throne  of  England,  and  he  could 
not  be  content  to  have  only  one  castle  in  the  country  when 
"  there  was  no  one  of  any  worth  in  England  who  did  not 
either  build  or  strengthen  some  place  of  defence."  So  he  set 
to  work  to  build  luxurious  palaces  throughout  his  whole 
diocese — then  larger  than  it  is  now.  He  formed  great  ponds 
and  aqueducts  in  difficult  places,  and  at  his  palaces  he  kept 
all  kinds  of  wild  beasts,  birds,  and  monsters  which  he  brought 
from  all  parts  of  Europe.  Under  the  care  of  so  great 
a  builder  did  Farnham  Castle  come  into  being.  His 
work  there  consisted  of  a  great  shell-keep  of  massive  masonry 
— that  is  to  say,  a  roofless  stone  building  with  no  other 
shelter  for  the  men  who  formed  its  guard  than  was  afforded 
by  rough  wooden  penthouses  within  the  walls.  It  was 
probably  Henry  himself  or  one  of  the  two  lawyer-bishops 
who  followed  him,  who  added  to  the  south  of  the  keep  the 
beginnings  of  the  triangular  block  of  buildings  which  now 
form  the  habitable  part  of  the  castle.  Although  these  were 
of  a  more  domestic  character,  the  kitchens,  the  chapel, 
the  great  hall  and  the  narrow  wedge-shaped  "  dungeons," 
(approached  from  the  portcullised  entrance  to  the  keep  by 
a  steep  flight  of  stairs)  were  all  massive  enough  to  resist 
attack. 

Bishop  Henry  was  much  in  need  of  fortified  houses, 
for  he  took  a  very  active,  and  not  always  a  consistent, 
part  in  the  warfare  which  made  his  brother's  reign  one  long 
period  of  anarchy.  In  this  great  struggle  he  did  not  always 
give  his  support  to  his  brother's  cause,  but  he  subordinated 
brotherly  feeling  to  his  zeal  for  the  Church.  Hoping  to 
obtain  an  extension  of  the  privileges  conceded  by  Stephen, 


FARNHAM    CASTLE  127 

he  joined  the  Empress  Matilda  in  1141,  when  the  king  was 
a  prisoner  ;  but  he  soon  found  that  he  had  been  mistaken 
in  her.  The  aUiance  was,  therefore,  not  a  long  one,  and 
Bishop  Henry,  true  to  the  cause  of  the  Church,  turned 
against  the  Empress,  besieging  her  in  Winchester  with  a 
royalist  force  which  doubtless  included  many  tenants  of  his 
own  from  the  neighbouring  manor  of  Farnham.  Subse- 
quently he  did  his  best  to  promote  peace  between  his  brother 
and  Matilda's  son,  Henry  Plantagenet,  and  received  the 
latter  with  honour  at  Winchester  in  1153. 

There  is  nothing  to  show  whether  Henry  of  Blois  spent 
much  time  or  none  at  all  at  his  castle  of  Farnham.  In  spite 
of  his  earlier  relations  with  the  new  king,  Henry,  he  was  not 
left  long  in  possession  of  the  fortresses  which  he  had  built. 
Henry  would  not  allow  so  strong  a  prelate  to  own  many 
castles  in  his  country,  so  in  1155  he  made  a  pretext  of  the 
bishop's  "  secret  "  departure  from  England  without  his  licence 
to  seize  all  his  castles,  including  Farnham.  He  destroyed 
six  of  them  wholly  or  in  part,  yet  Farnham  seems  to  have 
escaped  the  general  destruction.  Bishop  Henry  returned  to 
England  to  find  his  possessions  bereft  of  their  noble  defences. 
He  died,  "full  of  years,"  August  8,  1171. 

The  lawyer-bishop  who  succeeded  him  was  Richard  of 
Ilchester.  He  apparently  found  time  to  continue  the  work  of 
building  at  Farnham.  Indeed,  he  erected  in  his  bishopric 
such  admirable  buildings  that  the  admiring  chronicler  writes 
that  these  "  recall  his  name  from  generation  to  generation." 
Although  his  work  is  a  perpetual  memorial  of  his  connection 
with  the  castle,  he  cannot  have  spent  much  time  there,  for 
as  a  justice  he  was  constantly  journeying  about  the  country, 
and  he  also  "  had  the  ear  of  the  king,"  upon  whom  he  often 
attended.     He  entertained  Henry  at  his  palace  at  Waltham, 


128      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

and  their  friendship  was  so  intimate  that  he  was  chosen  by 
the  barons  to  go  to  the  king  in  Normandy  in  1174,  as  one 
"  who  would  speak  to  him  much  more  warmly  and  urgently 
than  anyone  else."  The  Normans  even  jeered  at  the  barons 
in  England  for  sending  so  important  a  messenger,  saying  that 
the  next  to  come  would  be  the  Tower  of  London  itself. 

Godfrey  de  Lucy,  his  successor,  was  less  fortunate  in  his 
relations  with  the  Crown.  Possibly  he  continued  his  pre- 
decessor's work  at  Farnham ;  but  he  had  much  difficulty  in 
maintaining  himself  against  the  grasping  policy  of  William 
Longchamp,  who,  while  he  was  ill  in  France,  seized  the  royal 
castles  in  his  custody,  and  these  were  again  taken  from  him 
by  King  Richard  himself  in  1194,  upon  his  return  from 
captivity  in  Germany. 

Farnham  Castle  next  passed  into  the  hands  of  a  foreign 
bishop,  the  Poitevin,  Peter  des  Roches,  who  had  the  custody 
of  it  for  a  year  before  he  was  elected  to  the  Bishopric  of 
Winchester.  Farnham,  with  his  other  lands  and  those  of 
his  fellow-bishops,  was  seized  by  King  John  in  retalia- 
tion for  the  interdict ;  but  Peter  of  Winchester  was  a  favourite 
of  the  king's,  and  his  property  was  immediately  restored  to 
him.  While  the  whole  of  England  lay  under  the  ban  of  the 
Church  he  was  one  of  the  only  two  bishops  who  remained  in 
the  country ;  but  his  business  did  not  lie  in  his  diocese,  and 
he  was  less  occupied  in  defending  the  Church  than  in 
administering  the  affairs  of  the  king.  His  enemies  decried 
his  greed  and  made  a  Latin  song  about  the  bishop  who 
presided  over  the  royal  exchequer,  rolling  and  unrolling  the 
parchments,  very  zealous  in  the  keeping  of  accounts,  but  not 
so  zealous  for  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel,  and  ever  crying, 
"  Give,  there  is  not  enough." 

He  and  his  castles  were  soon  to  suffer  in  the  cause'of  the 


FARNHAM    CASTLE  129 

king.  When  the  barons,  angered  by  John's  want  of  faith, 
invited  Prince  Louis  of  France  to  cross  the  Channel  and 
take  for  himself  the  Kingdom  of  England,  Louis  was  not  slow 
to  accept  the  invitation.  He  had  captured  Rochester  in 
May,  1216,  and  had  been  received  with  great  rejoicing  by  the 
Londoners — usually  no  friends  to  a  foreign  invader.  Reigate 
and  Guildford  Castles  had  just  fallen  an  easy  prey  to  the 
French  troops,  when,  elated  with  their  victories,  they  arrived 
before  the  walls  of  Farnham.  Its  master  was  not  there  to 
defend  it  ;  he  was  hurling  his  excommunications  against 
Louis  from  the  camp  of  the  fleeing  king,  and  had  doubtless 
passed  hurriedly  through  the  town  with  his  master  as  he 
hastily  retreated  to  the  west.  He  does  not  even  appear  to 
have  left  a  guard  to  hold  Farnham  against  the  French  as  his 
men  did  his  castle  of  Odiham.  Apparently  it  yielded  at 
once  to  the  French  forces,  which  hurried  on  after  the 
retreating  king,  leaving  a  party  of  soldiers  to  defend  the 
castle. 

While  the  French  were  in  possession  of  Farnham,  Peter 
des  Roches  was  sharing  the  fortunes  of  his  master,  whom  he 
faithfully  accompanied  until  his  death  in  1216.  Even  then 
the  bishop  was  not  free  to  conduct  in  person  the  force  which 
set  about  the  recovery  of  his  castles,  but  was  obliged  to 
remain  away  from  the  field  of  active  warfare  with  his  young 
charge,  the  new  king,  Henry.  It  fell  to  William  the  Marshal 
to  reduce  the  French  garrison  left  in  Farnham  Castle  by  their 
prince,  who  had  again  crossed  the  seas.  The  French  capitu- 
lated before  March  7,  and  doubtless  made  no  very  stubborn 
defence,  for  they  were  allowed  to  retire  to  London,  which  was 
still  in  favour  of  their  master.  The  castle  narrowly  escaped 
destruction  by  the  Marshal  in  the  following  month.  It  was 
the  only  one  of  the  fortresses  which  he  had  recovered  which 

E.E.P.  K 


130      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL   PALACES 

was  not  wholly  or  partially  dismantled  in  fear  of  a  second 
surprise  by  Louis,  who  had  then  returned  to  England  and  had 
forced  a  landing  in  spite  of  all  the  efforts  of  the  men  of  the 
Cinque  Ports.  Perhaps  Farnham  escaped  through  oversight, 
perhaps  through  its  comparative  unimportance  ;  for  Louis 
himself  did  not  think  it  worth  while  to  attempt  its  recapture. 
As  his  army  passed  through  the  town  with  a  great  cavalcade  of 
waggoners,  bands  of  cross-bowmen  and  a  host  of  well-trained 
soldiers,  he  was  too  anxious  to  reach  Winchester  as  soon  as 
possible  to  allow  even  one  arrow  to  be  shot  against  the  walls 
of  the  castle  so  recently  his  own.  So  the  French  hurried 
through  the  little  town  and  Peter  des  Roches  retained  his 
property. 

He  died  at  Farnham,  June  g,  1238,  after  a  long  life  of 
energy  devoted  to  warfare  and  statecraft  rather  than  to  the 
interests  of  his  diocese.  Then  for  six  years  the  castle  was  in 
the  hands  of  custodians  appointed  by  the  Crown,  and  they 
accounted  faithfully  for  all  the  details  of  their  charge  until  it 
was  wrested  from  the  king  with  threats  of  interdict  and 
excommunication  by  the  new  bishop,  William  of  Raleigh. 
Raleigh  had  not  much  enjoyment  from  the  bishopric  that  he 
had  striven  so  hard  to  obtain.  Probably  he  never  saw 
Farnham,  for  he  died  in  1250,  at  Tours,  where  he  had 
retired  to  eke  out  the  remains  of  his  princely  income,  greatly 
diminished  by  the  bribes  which  had  been  necessary  to  secure 
it  for  himself. 

Thus  in  the  end  the  king  had  his  own  way  and  procured 
the  revenues  of  the  rich  see  of  Winchester  for  a  creature 
of  his  own — his  half-brother,  Aymer  de  Valence.  Then, 
indeed,  the  castle  had  a  wealthy  lord,  but  one  without 
learning  or  character,  a  man  even  ignorant  of  the  language 
of  his   own    monks   at    Winchester.     The  king  had  forced 


FARNHAM    CASTLE  131 

him  upon  them,  entering  in  person  the  pulpit  of  their 
cathedral  church  to  preach  obedience  with  mingled  threats 
and  persuasions. 

There  was  no  love  lost  between  this  foreigner,  over-bearing 
and  grasping  as  he  was,  and  the  people  of  England.  It  was 
quite  natural,  too,  that  the  men  of  Farnham,  who  lived 
within  sight  of  his  strong  castle  and  went  there  twice  yearly 
to  do  suit  of  court  at  his  "  law-days,"  should  learn  to  share 
in  the  general  hatred  for  all  "  strangers."  Subsequently  they 
even  took  to  beating  the  dogs  of  those  who  passed  through 
the  town,  and  struggles  ensued  with  blows  which  occasionally 
proved  fatal.  Good  Churchmen  must  have  been  struck  with 
horror  to  see  the  approach  of  the  cavalcade  of  armed  servants 
of  the  "  Elect  of  Winchester  "  bringing  to  the  castle  the 
unhappy  official  of  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  whom 
they  had  brought  with  insults  from  Lambeth,  not  even 
allowing  him  to  guide  his  own  horse.  Perhaps  the  townsfolk 
were  too  much  over-awed  by  the  stern  ruler  of  their  castle  to 
give  his  prisoner  hospitality,  when  at  last,  thrust  forth  as 
rudely  as  he  had  been  brought  in,  he  crept  away,  not  daring 
even  to  look  behind  him  for  fear  of  pursuit,  to  find  a  refuge 
in  the  neighbouring  monastery  of  Waverley.  Yet  it  must 
have  been  whispered  in  the  little  town  that  his  sole  offence 
had  been  the  excommunication  of  an  obstinate  priest,  illegally 
thrust  upon  the  Hospital  of  St.  Thomas  of  Southwark  by  the 
bold  master  of  the  castle.  No  wonder  if,  after  the  sight  of 
such  violent  deeds,  the  townspeople  rejoiced  when  they  heard 
how  Aymer  de  Valence  had  been  driven  into  exile  from  his 
castle  at  Winchester,  and  had  died  in  Paris  as  he  was 
returning.  Perhaps  the  ill-will  towards  foreigners  revived  once 
more  when,  in  the  winter  of  1424,  there  marched  through  the 
town  a  hundred  and  fifty  prisoners  of  war,  who  had  been 

K    2 


132      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

captured  two  years  before  by  Henry  V.  at  Meaux,  his  last 
conquest  in  France. 

The  years  following  the  death  of  De  Valence  saw  a  great 
change  at  the  castle.  There  succeeded  as  bishop,  John 
Gervays,  a  warm  supporter  of  the  national  cause  and  no 
friend  to  Poitevin  or  Provencal.  He  was  a  faithful  supporter 
of  Simon  de  Montfort,  and  probably  the  latter's  troops 
hastened  by  his  castle  in  1263  on  their  way  to  the  taking  of 
Dover.  The  bishop  himself  was  suspended  in  1266  until  he 
should  have  satisfactorily  explained  to  the  Pope  his  connec- 
tion with  the  doings  of  the  younger  Montfort. 

At  this  time  the  districts  of  western  Surrey  were  even  more 
thickly  wooded  than  they  are  at  present.  They  had  always 
been  well  stocked  with  red  deer,  and  the  bishops,  who  doubt- 
less loved  the  chase,  had  many  an  opportunity  to  hunt  in  the 
'*  forest "  about  their  Surrey  castle.  Their  "  chaces " 
stretched  far  and  wide,  and  the  enclosures  of  their  "  Great 
Park"  extended  for  several  miles  to  the  north  and  west  of 
the  castle.  Beyond  their  park  there  lay  the  forests  of  Alice 
Holt  and  Woolmer,  and  it  was  here  that  a  band  of  outlaws, 
supporters  of  De  Montfort  and  the  barons,  took  refuge  with 
their  leader,  a  brave  knight  named  Adam  de  Gurdon.  They 
took  to  the  woods  early  in  1267  making  raids  on  the  lands  of 
the  neighbouring  Royalists  and  holding  the  winding  road 
from  Alton  to  Farnham  Castle.  Doubtless  the  men  at  the 
castle,  knowing  their  master's  inclinations,  sent  help  to  his 
friends  in  the  woods,  or  were  blind  to  the  loss  of  his  deer  in 
the  park.  Adam  de  Gurdon  knew  the  forest  well,  for  he  had 
married  the  keeper's  daughter  and  had  received  her  father's 
office  as  her  dowry.  Unfortunately  there  is  much  to  dis- 
prove the  story  of  the  chronicler,  who  tells  how  the  young 
prince  Edward,  hearing  of  the  bravery  of  this  Robin  Hood 


FARNHAM    CASTLE  133 

sought  him  out  and  challenged  him  to  single  combat.  The 
tale  goes  on  to  describe  how  the  fight  was  for  a  long  time 
equal,  until  the  prince  persuaded  his  bold  enemy  to  sur- 
render, and  so  save  his  life,  and  how  he  sent  him  to  his 
mother,  the  queen,  at  Guildford,  to  receive  her  pardon. 
Certain  it  is  that  he  lived  to  serve  Edward  faithfully  for 
many  years. 

There  followed  a  century  during  which  the  bishops  often 
stayed  at  their  castle  at  Farnham  ;  yet  little  is  known  of 
their  doings  there.  They  were  chiefly  statesmen,  and  some, 
like  the  founder  of  the  castle,  Henry  of  Blois,  helped  to  make 
and  unmake  kings.  Bishop  Woodlock,  in  1307,  had  crowned 
the  new  king,  Edward  II.;  nine  years  later  he  retired  to 
Farnham  to  die.  The  agreeable  chancellor,  John  Sandale, 
visited  his  castle  shortly  before  his  death,  and  perhaps  had 
often  stayed  there  before.  Evidently  his  constable  or  keeper 
in  charge  of  his  home  at  Farnham  was  a  relative,  for  his 
name  was  Sandale,  and  after  the  bishop's  death  he  took  for 
himself  (perhaps  in  memory  of  his  late  master)  sundry  pieces 
of  furniture,  tables  from  the  great  hall  and  others  from  the 
steward's  room,  in  addition  to  swans  and  stock  from  the  sur- 
rounding estate.  The  worldly  bishop,  Adam  of  Orlton, 
played  a  prominent  part  in  the  civil  dissensions  of  his  time, 
and  finally  induced  the  king,  Edward  II.,  to  resign  his 
crown.  Many  bitter  thoughts  must  have  followed  him  to  his 
retirement  in  Farnham,  where  he  spent  the  last  years  of  his 
life  stricken  with  blindness.  Another  bishop,  Edendon,  was 
probably  a  constant  visitor,  for  he  made  permanent  provision 
for  the  maintenance  of  a  domestic  chaplain  to  officiate  in  the 
castle  chapel,  setting  aside  for  his  use  the  profits  of  a  house 
in  the  Stews  at  Southwark  and  the  rent  of  another  house  at 
Farnham  itself. 


134      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL   PALACES 

Most  memorable,  however,  of  the  fourteenth-century 
bishops  is  the  great  founder  and  statesman,  William  of 
Wykeham.  It  is  quite  evident  that  he  had  a  liking  for 
Farnham  Castle,  although  he  spent  much  time  at  all  his 
palaces.  He  visited  Farnham  within  a  fortnight  of 
his  enthronement  as  Bishop  of  Winchester,  and  there 
received  a  deputation  from  the  mayor  and  burgesses  of  the 
great  port  of  Southampton,  sent  to  plead  their  privileges. 
For  a  time  Farnham  Castle  must  have  been  in  the 
hands  of  the  Crown,  for  all  Wykeham's  temporalities  were 
seized  at  the  instigation  of  his  political  opponent,  John  of 
Gaunt ;  but  after  their  restoration  Wykeham  paid  many  a 
visit  to  his  castle  on  the  Surrey  borders.  He  took  refuge 
there  during  the  three  summer  months  of  1399,  while  he 
waited  in  fear  of  his  life  to  hear  the  result  of  the  struggle 
between  Richard  II.  and  Henry  of  Lancaster. 

A  fitting  successor  to  so  great  a  bishop  was  the  royal 
statesman  and  cardinal,  Henry  Beaufort,  son  of  Wykeham's 
adversary,  John  of  Gaunt.  This  patriotic  statesman,  whose 
influence  was  felt  throughout  the  Continent,  began  his  con- 
nection with  Farnham  by  a  renewal  of  the  privileges  of  the 
burgesses  who  traded  in  the  little  town  below  his  castle.  He 
remembered  them  too  in  disposing  of  his  accumulated  wealth, 
bequeathing  to  his  poor  tenants  in  Surrey  and  Hampshire 
the  lordly  sum  of  2,000  marks. 

Less  is  known  of  the  connection  between  his  successors 
and  their  home  in  Surrey.  William  of  Waynflete,  who  was 
distinguished  by  the  uprightness  and  prudence  with  which, 
in  times  of  great  difficulty,  he  executed  the  office  of  chan- 
cellor, was  a  staunch  Lancastrian.  Perhaps  he  took  refuge 
at  Farnham  in  1461,  when  he  was  fleeing  into  "secret 
corners  "  for  fear  of  King  Edward.     He  ruled  at  Farnham 


William  ok  W'vkkiiam,   liisiior  ok  Winchivstek. 

From  his/'oriyaU  in  Wiiultcstcr  College  Hatl. 


FARNHAM    CASTLE  135 

for  exactly  forty  years,  and  died  a  venerable  old  man 
August  II,  i486.  It  was  not  till  the  February  following  that 
the  temporalities  of  his  see,  including  Farnham,  were 
delivered  to  Peter  Courtenay,  then  Bishop  of  Exeter.  The 
eldest  son  of  Henry  VII.,  the  short-lived  Prince  Arthur,  had 
been  born  at  Winchester  in  the  September  preceding,  and 
doubtless  the  town  of  Farnham  seemed  a  convenient  place 
for  the  dwelling  of  the  infant  prince,  while  his  mother,  Eliza- 
beth of  York,  returned  to  the  palace  at  Shene,  and  prepared 
for  the  great  festivities  which  were  to  accompany  her  corona- 
tion. It  is  uncertain  whether  the  prince's  nursery  with  all 
his  retinue  of  "lady-mistresses,  nurses,  and  gentlewomen" 
was  fixed  at  the  castle  or  elsewhere  in  the  town ;  but  the 
good  townspeople  took  advantage  of  his  presence  there  to 
lay  stress  on  the  poverty  of  their  parish  church.  The  affec- 
tionate king  at  once  established  a  chantry  at  the  altar  of  the 
Virgin  Mary  in  the  north  of  the  church,  where  the  chaplain 
should  yearly  celebrate  for  the  good  estate  of  the  young 
prince,  and  of  his  father  and  mother  and  grandmother. 
Thus  began  an  intimate  connection  between  Farnham 
and  the  Tudor  sovereigns.  Courtenay  had  fled  to  Henry 
of  Richmond  in  Brittany  when  he  feared  the  anger  of 
Richard  III.  at  his  attempts  to  stir  to  rebellion  the  men  of 
his  native  county  of  Cornwall. 

Bishop  Foxe,  too,  was  the  intimate  adviser  of  the  king,  and 
thus  the  sixteenth  century  brought  to  the  castle  a  time  of  gay 
Court  life.  Henry  VIII.,  who  loved  the  hunt  and  could  in 
one  day  tire  out  ten  horses,  discovered  that  Farnham  was  an 
ideal  centre  for  his  favourite  recreation.  Moreover,  it  was  a 
most  convenient  resting-place  between  two  stages  of  the 
journey  to  Southampton  or  Winchester ;  so  he  paid  many  a 
visit  there  to  his  friend  and  adviser,  Bishop  Foxe,  into  whose 


136      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

special  care  he  had  been  committed  by  his  father.  Foxe 
was  then  building  the  noble  entrance-tower,  which  still  gives 
colour  and  dignity  to  the  southern  face  of  the  castle.  The 
king  was  entertained  at  the  castle  in  15 16,  and  sat  up  till 
eleven  o'clock  one  Sunday  night  writing  to  Wolsey  an 
account  of  the  embassy  which  he  had  just  received  from  the 
Emperor — news  which  brought  the  Cardinal  and  the  Bishop 
of  Durham  hurrying  to  Farnham. 

The  dreaded  "sweating  sickness"  was  rife  in  the  summer 
of  1517.  The  king,  alarmed  by  the  death  of  the  pages  who 
slept  in  his  own  room,  dismissed  the  Court  and  went  into 
retirement  at  Farnham  with  only  the  queen  and  three  of  his 
favourite  gentlemen,  and,  to  while  away  the  time,  Dionysius 
Memo  the  musician.  All  public  business  was  at  a  stand-still, 
while  the  king  and  Wolsey  took  refuge  in  the  country  to  be 
free  from  the  danger  of  infection  ;  but  in  November  there 
arrived  two  French  ambassadors,  the  Bishop  of  Paris  and 
Monseigneur  de  la  Guiche.  Henry  received  them  graciously 
when  they  found  him  in  his  country  retreat,  but  took  good 
care  that  they  should  be  lodged  at  a  distance  from  the  castle 
at  the  sign  of  the  "  St.  George."  They  were  feasted  there  on 
such  delicacies  as  larks  and  curlews ;  while  their  retainers 
also  appear  to  have  been  generously  entertained,  for  among 
the  items  of  their  expenses  at  the  inn  is  "damage  done  in  the 
breaking  of  beds" — riotous  conduct  which  could  hardly  be 
attributed  to  grave  ambassadors,  whose  business  concerned 
the  peace  of  Europe. 

Doubtless  Foxe's  home  was  also  open  to  Wolsey,  his  life- 
long friend,  who,  far  from  being  jealous  of  the  bishop's 
intimacy  with  the  king,  often  rebuked  him  for  not  visiting 
the  Court  more  frequently.  Wolsey  dated  from  Farnham  an 
account  of  the  fight  off  Brest,  1512,  but  he  does  not  show 


FARNHAM    CASTLE  137 

whether  he  was  then  staying  at  the  castle.  He  was  himself 
to  succeed  his  friend  as  Bishop  of  Winchester,  but  he  was 
only  master  of  the  castle  for  the  last  year  before  his  fall.  In 
his  time  there  was  a  custodian  of  Farnham — the  king's  friend 
and  chamberlain,  Baron  Sandys,  no  lover  of  Wolsey.  No 
wonder,  then,  that  the  cardinal,  when  he  was  receiving  "  fair 
words  but  little  comfortable  deeds  "  in  the  time  of  his  dis- 
grace, was  anxious  to  arrange  that  the  successor  to  the  office 
should  be  "  Mr.  Treasurer."  He  wrote  pathetic  letters  on 
the  subject  to  "  his  only  refuge  and  hope,"  Cromwell,  but 
they  were  useless.  Sandys  remained  keeper  of  the  castle 
after  it  had  been  seized  by  the  king,  and  the  custody  of  the 
Great  and  Little  Parks  with  the  care  of  the  garden  and  the 
office  of  ranger  in  the  North  and  South  Chaces  were  given  to 
Court  officials.  No  one  could  hunt  within  the  neighbouring 
woods  without  fear  of  imprisonment  in  the  castle,  while  its 
keeper  was  a  man  of  a  practical  turn  of  mind  and  set  his 
prisoners  to  the  unpleasant  task  of  pulling  up  the  nettles  in 
the  park.  The  offices  of  custodian  and  ranger  were  granted 
out  for  terms  of  years,  and  difficulties  sometimes  arose 
through  the  claims  which  the  local  gentry  thus  acquired 
upon  the  estate  of  the  bishopric. 

Gardiner,  the  bishop  who  succeeded  Wolsey,  was  a  more 
compliant  courtier  than  his  predecessor.  At  the  castle  he 
gathered  around  him  a  household  filled  with  affectionate 
devotion.  His  visits  there  were  snatched  in  the  intervals 
between  energetic  work  throughout  his  diocese  and  the  ever- 
increasing  duties  of  his  political  life.  He  also  entertained  the 
king  at  Farnham  ;  but  Henry  did  not  scruple  to  listen  to  the 
tales  of  a  petty  official,  who,  annoyed  at  difficulties  he  had 
experienced  in  trying  to  obtain  the  custody  of  the  Little  Park, 
revealed   to  the    king   all    Gardiner's  conversation   and  the 


138      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL   PALACES 


remarks  which  passed  at  his  dinner-table  at  the  castle  on  the 
important  subject  of  the  Pope's  supremacy.  The  astute 
statesman  evidently  succeeded  in  making  a  suitable 
explanation  of  the  views  which  he  had  expressed,  for 
he  was  restored  to  the  favour  of  the  king,  and  was  sent 
in  that  same  year  upon  an  important  embassy  to  France. 
After  Henry's  death,  however,  he  had  need  of  all  the 
consolation  which  the  devotion  of  his  faithful  servants 
could  afford  him.  He  was  imprisoned  in  the  Fleet  for  his 
opposition  to  the  religious  innovations  of  the  Council,  and  on 
his  way  to  Winchester,  after  his  release,  he  passed  the  night 
at  Farnham.  On  the  following  day,  a  festival,  he  was 
induced  by  the  discontent  and  ill-feeling — roused  among  the 
townspeople  at  the  recent  visit  of  the  Vicar  of  Andover  for 
the  purpose  of  pulling  down  the  superstitious  images  in  their 
church — to  preach  to  them  a  sermon  on  the  obedience  in 
which  the  Council  had  just  given  him  "  a  good  lesson  and 
admonition."  He  was  not  long  with  them.  A  few  months 
later  he  travelled  to  London  from  Winchester  in  a  horse- 
litter,  and  a  little  while  afterwards  was  imprisoned  in  the 
Tower.  His  loyal  servants  at  Farnham  looked  eagerly  for 
any  hope  of  his  release.  Gardiner  himself  expected  to  be  set 
free  in  the  summer  of  1550,  and  sent  a  messenger  to  the 
castle  to  summon  men  to  prepare  his  house  at  Southwark. 
They  were  strictly  charged  not  to  disclose  their  mission  to  the 
rest  of  the  household  "for  fear  lest  they  being  stricken  with 
gladness  should  come  straggling  up "  to  welcome  their 
master.  They  must  have  suffered  bitter  disappointment  as 
day  after  day  passed  by  and  still  he  remained  in  the  Tower  ; 
doubtless  they  were  still  more  sorrowful  when  they  heard  in 
1551  that  he  had  surrendered  all  his  temporalities  to  the  king. 
The  Council    immediately  took  steps  for  putting  Farnham 


FARNHAM    CASTLE  139 

Castle  in  good  repair,  and  apparently  kept  it  in  their  own 
possession  until  Gardiner's  restoration  to  his  bishopric  at  the 
accession  of  Queen  Mary.  In  June  and  July  of  1554,  there 
were  held  at  the  castle  many  anxious  meetings  of  the  Council 
to  discuss  the  preparations  for  the  queen's  coming  marriage. 
Mary  herself  is  said  to  have  stayed  there  on  her  way  to 
celebrate  her  nuptials  at  Winchester. 

The  castle  had  been  put  into  the  keeping  of  a  worthy 
housekeeper  renowned  for  her  good  cooking.  She  provided 
Gardiner  with  such  tasty  dishes,  and  above  all  with  such 
good  cordials,  that  in  his  gratitude  he  was  ready  to  connive  at 
her  heresy  and  even  to  protect  her  from  the  fury  of  others. 
"  Sensible  of  the  consumptionous  state  of  his  body"  and  of 
his  health  broken  by  years  of  imprisonment,  he  found  "  the 
physic  out  of  her  kitchen  more  beneficial  than  physic  out  of 
the  apothecary's  shop." 

Yet  another  Tudor  sovereign,  Queen  Elizabeth,  took 
advantage  of  the  convenient  situation  of  Farnham  as  a 
resting-place  in  the  progresses  by  which  she  grew  familiar 
with  her  people.  In  1569,  her  Court  journeyed  there 
from  Guildford ;  with  it  rode  the  Duke  of  Norfolk  filled 
with  new  hopes  of  restoration  to  the  Queen's  favour 
raised  by  the  promises  of  his  crafty  rival,  Leicester.  Their 
fulfilment  seemed  near  at  hand,  when  Elizabeth  graciously 
invited  him  to  sit  at  her  own  table,  probably  in  the  great 
hall  of  the  castle  ;  but  the  jealous  queen  could  not  refrain 
from  giving  the  unhappy  duke  "  a  nip  "  before  the  end  of  the 
meal,  rebuking  him  for  his  folly  in  hoping  for  an 
alliance  with  Mary  Queen  of  Scots,  and  bidding  him  "  take 
heed  to  his  pillow." 

It  was  not  long  before  Mary's  wily  ambassador,  John 
Leslie,  Bishop  of  Ross,  was  brought  to  Farnham,  charged 


I40      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

with  complicity  in  Norfolk's  marriage-scheme  and  with  the 
more  serious  offence  of  inciting  Elizabeth's  people  to  rebellion. 
There  could  scarcely  be  much  sympathy  between  the  fanatical 
Puritan,  Bishop  Home,  and  his  Scottish  prisoner,  who  had 
been  removed  to  more  comfortable  quarters  at  Farnham 
after  a  rigorous  confinement  in  the  Tower.  He  remained  in 
the  bishop's  custody  for  a  year  and  three  months,  very 
straitly  kept  and  constantly  watched  by  two  of  the  bishop's 
gentlemen,  without  permission  to  speak  to  anyone  save  in  his 
custodian's  presence.  Dr.  Home,  with  all  his  fanaticism, 
must  have  exercised  considerable  self-restraint  to  treat  his 
prisoner  as  he  did,  "  with  honourable  and  friendly  usage," 
while  he  was  pleading  with  Burleigh  for  the  removal  of  that 
"  devil  "  or  that  "  devilish  spirit."  The  presence  of  a  Roman 
Catholic  bishop  must  have  been  a  constant  annoyance  to  so 
zealous  a  reformer.  Meanwhile  Leslie  spent  his  time  at  the 
castle  in  compiling  pious  treatises  of  consolation  to  be  read 
by  the  Scottish  queen  in  her  prison,  and  in  drawing  up  a 
Latin  address  to  Elizabeth  pleading  for  release— -a  subtle 
compliment  to  her  learning.  In  one  point  the  two  prelates 
agreed :  they  were  both  men  of  learning,  and  Bishop  Home 
may  have  spent  at  Farnham  a  part  of  the  time  devoted  to  his 
work  upon  the  "  Bishops'  Bible." 

His  successors  were  free  from  the  restraint  of  so  important 
a  prisoner,  but  they  were  not  without  the  duties  of  gaolers. 
In  1590  Bishop  Cooper  was  required  to  keep  in  custody  at 
his  castle  the  less  dangerous  recusants  of  the  neighbourhood. 
They  paid  him  for  this  enforced  hospitality  at  the  rates  which 
were  fixed  for  the  entertainment  of  their  friends  who  were 
lodged  with  criminals  and  debtors  in  the  Fleet.  While  the 
castle  was  being  used  as  a  prison  for  those  who  defied 
Elizabeth's  authority,  she  herself  planned  visits  to  it  at  a 


FARNHAM    CASTLE  141 

period  when  her  safety  in  more  crowded  places  was  endangered 
by  Popish  plots.  Her  last  entertainment  there  took  place  in 
1601,  although,  only  six  years  before,  the  bishop  had  lamented 
that  some  of  the  towers  of  the  castle  were  already  fallen,  and 
others  threatened  to  fall,  to  the  danger  of  the  whole  house. 
Just  outside  the  town  the  Sheriff  of  Hampshire,  who  had  been 
escorting  the  queen  through  his  county,  took  his  leave, 
perhaps  not  without  relief,  for  he  had  been  well  snubbed  at 
Basing.  The  Sheriff  of  Surrey  welcomed  Elizabeth  and 
escorted  her  with  all  her  following  to  the  castle,  where  she 
was  nobly  entertained  by  Bishop  Bilson.  Some  of  the 
Hampshire  gentlemen  lingered  with  the  Court  after  their 
sheriff  had  departed  and  were  rewarded  for  their  pains,  for 
two  of  their  number  received  knighthood  from  the  queen  at 
the  bishop's  recommendation.  He  had  gained  her  favour  by 
his  learned  defence  of  the  Protestant  cause,  and  so  well  had 
he  fought  on  her  behalf  that  he  had  become  the  acknow- 
ledged "  commander-in-chief  of  the  spiritual  warfare."  The 
death  of  Elizabeth  did  not  put  an  end  to  the  royal  visits  to 
Farnham.  Under  the  Stuart  sovereigns  they  increased. 
In  the  very  first  year  of  his  reign,  James  I.  stayed  with  his 
queen  at  Dr.  Bilson's  "  hospitable  residence."  The  king 
took  a  great  fancy  to  the  castle,  with  its  wide  parks  and  its 
convenient  neighbourhood  to  the  bailiwick  of  north-west 
Surrey,  which  he  insisted  upon  calling  a  part  of  his  forest  of 
Windsor.  The  house  would  be  an  ideal  centre  for  his  hunting 
parties  ;  so  he  took  a  lease  of  it  for  the  bishop's  life,  and 
many  subsequent  summers  brought  the  royal  party  to  this 
pleasant  retreat.  Yet  all  did  not  go  smoothly  at  the  new 
abode.  The  parks  had  been  ill-kept,  the  lodges  were  out  of 
repair,  and  the  neighbours  had  pulled  down  the  palings  for 
firewood.       The  famous  surveyor,  John   Norden,  had  to  be 


142      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

called  in  to  restore  order  in  the  wide-spreading  chaces 
before  the  visit  of  the  royal  party  in  June,  1609 ;  and 
Ramsay,  then  Viscount  Haddington,  was  installed  as  constable 
of  the  castle  and  master  of  the  game.  The  king  and 
queen  arrived  on  June  i,  but  the  night  was  one  of  alarm. 
Some  unknown  negligent  person  had  left  a  candle  on  a  post 
in  the  stables.  It  fell  into  the  litter  and  set  fire  to  the 
buildings.  The  whole  household  was  roused  at  ten  o'clock, 
and  many  set  to  work  to  save  the  royal  horses.  Some  faithful 
courtiers,  however,  kept  watch  with  the  king,  for  besides 
spreading  unfounded  reports  of  some  new  gunpowder  plot, 
people  were  suggesting  that  the  fire  was  a  ruse  to  draw 
away  the  king's  attendants,  and  so  leave  him  unprotected 
against  the  evil  practices  of  his  enemies. 

The  country  folk  did  not  always  appreciate  these  costly 
journeys  of  the  Court.  In  1615  they  were  impoverished  by  a 
hard  winter  followed  by  a  hot,  dry  summer,  which  spoilt 
their  crops,  while  producing  the  finest  grapes  and  melons 
known  in  England  for  many  years  before.  They  begged 
King  James  not  to  make  his  progress  through  their  counties, 
but  he  remained  obstinate.  On  his  return  journey  he  stayed 
at  Farnham  Castle,  and  showed  his  gratitude  to  Bishop 
Bilson  by  appointing  him  one  of  his  privy  council.  Bilson 
only  lived  one  year  to  enjoy  his  new  honour,  but  the 
termination  of  his  lease  did  not  put  an  end  to  the  king's 
visits.  In  the  time  of  Bilson's  successor,  building  was 
carried  on  at  "  a  great   charge." 

Matthew  Wren,  uncle  of  the  great  architect,  accompanied 
Bishop  Andrewes  to  Farnham  in  1620  and  was  impressed  by 
the  magnificence  of  the  king's  entertainment  there.  This  feast, 
which  lasted  for  three  days,  cost  the  bishop  £1,000  ;  yet  the 
king  privately  felt  bored  in  the  company  of  the  grave  bishop, 


FARNHAM    CASTLE  143 

in  whose  presence  he  felt  bound  to  refrain  from  his  wonted 
mirth  and  Hberty.  Doubtless  he  turned  for  amusement  to 
the  skilful  disputations  of  Wren,  who  at  one  time  argued 
that  the  king's  dogs  "might  perform  more  than  others,  by 
the  prerogative."  It  is  remarkable  that  the  generosity  of 
this  entertainment  should  have  been  insisted  upon  in  the 
funeral  discourse  on  a  prelate  so  eminent  and  so  saintly 
as  Bishop  Andrewes. 

Like  his  father,  Charles  I.  enjoyed  the  pleasures  of  a 
country  retreat  at  Farnham.  In  August,  1630,  he  was  there 
with  his  whole  Court,  intent  upon  the  chase.  Secretary 
Dorchester  wrote  that  "  at  Farnham  their  tents  were  set  up 
like  Tartars,  and  they  hunted  before  and  after  noon  like 
Indians,  as  if  they  should  dine  and  sup  on  nothing  but  what 
they  killed."  The  king  again  paid  Farnham  a  visit  in  the 
next  year,  coming  in  by  torchlight  and  going  "abroad" 
again  next  morning. 

The  townspeople  acquired  a  personal  affection  for  their 
sovereign,  although  they  rebelled  against  the  billeting  of  his 
soldiers  in  their  houses,  and  were  only  pacified  by  the  good 
promises  of  Bishop  Neile.  Subsequently,  they  were  the 
"  tenants  and  creatures  "  of  the  loyal  Bishop  Curll,  Neile's 
successor,  who  did  not  at  once  retire  into  private  life  when 
the  Civil  War  broke  out,  but  took  part  in  the  defence  of 
Winchester  against  Cromwell's  troops.  Probably,  therefore, 
the  castle  was  at  first  at  the  king's  disposal ;  but  the  Royalist 
townsmen  seem  to  have  stood  by  quietly  while,  in  October, 
1642,  it  was  occupied  for  Parliament  by  the  poet,  George 
Wither.  He  had  previously  distinguished  himself  mainly 
by  the  beauty  of  his  delicate  lyrics;  but  he  knew  the  country 
well,  and  was  convinced  of  the  strategic  importance  of  the 
castle,  situated  as  it  is  upon  the  main  roads  from  London 


144      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

to  Southampton,  to  Winchester,  and  on  one  of  the  chief 
approaches  to  Portsmouth.  He  was  also  quite  certain  of  his 
own  capacities  as  commander,  and  a  little  angry  that  he  was 
placed  in  dependence  upon  Sir  Richard  Onslow,  who  was  in 
command  of  the  Surrey  train-bands.  The  energetic  poet  set 
to  work  on  the  very  first  day  of  his  arrival  to  strengthen  the 
fortress  which,  he  declared,  had  for  years  been  only  inhabited 
by  daws  and  crows.  This  can  only  have  been  true  of  the 
keep.  He  hastened  to  dig  a  well,  for  water  had  previously 
to  be  fetched  from  the  town,  and  fifty  years  before  the  bishop 
had  complained  that  the  aqueduct  was  broken.  He  set  his 
men  to  work  to  build  stables  in  place  of  those  which  had 
been  burnt  down  in  the  time  of  James  I.,  and  hastened  the 
erection  of  platforms,  palisades  and  counter-scarps.  In  his 
industry  he  pestered  Onslow  for  stores,  ammunition,  and 
reinforcements,  and  would  not  believe  that  his  demands  could 
not  be  supplied  at  once.  With  sensitive  self-consciousness 
he  took  upon  himself  "  the  duty  of  inferior  officers,"  instruct- 
ing the  recruits  of  his  scanty  garrison  in  the  management  of 
their  weapons  ;  and  bitterly  he  felt  his  helplessness  when 
they  "  gave  him  leave  to  instruct  others,"  and  went  off  into 
the  country  round  to  tell  the  malignant  "creatures  of  the 
bishop "  how  the  fine  garrison  at  the  castle  had  neither 
lodging  nor  victuals,  nor  more  than  sixty  muskets  between 
them.  The  good  captain  had  evidently  expected  to  find 
himself  in  command  of  a  well-defended  fortress,  well  supplied 
with  stores  and  ammunition  to  resist  a  lengthy  siege,  and 
was  disappointed  to  find  himself  at  the  head  of  an  ill-trained 
garrison  of  raw  recruits  in  an  ancient  castle,  which  had  not 
been  besieged  for  over  four  centuries.  He  vented  his  rage 
on  Sir  Richard  Onslow,  bringing  against  him  quite  ill-founded 
charges  of  treachery.   His  own  behaviour  was  soon  questioned, 


FARNHAM    CASTLE  145 

for  he  left  the  castle  and  made  his  way  to  London.  Accord- 
ing to  his  own  account  he  went  there  unwillingly  at  Onslow's 
command.  When  once  there  he  spent  his  time  in  vain 
entreaties  for  stores  and  cannon  from  the  Tower.  It  was  too 
late.  Prince  Rupert's  troops  were  between  him  and  his 
castle,  and  the  Committee  of  Both  Houses  would  not  trust 
him  with  their  guns  for  fear  they  should  be  captured. 
Hearing  that  orders  had  been  sent  to  his  soldiers  to  evacuate 
the  castle,  he  determined,  with  praiseworthy  spirit,  to  ride 
through  the  enemy's  country  and  share  in  their  retreat. 
Meanwhile  news  was  brought  him  that  the  townsmen  would 
not  even  allow  his  garrison  meat  for  their  supper,  much  less 
waggons  in  which  to  carry  off  what  stores  they  had.  He 
went  to  his  own  house  on  the  way  and  fetched  thence  sheep 
and  waggons.  These  he  brought  "  through  the  Little  Park 
at  the  backside  of  the  castle."  Then  the  little  band  retired 
in  military  order  through  the  midst  of  the  townsfolk,  who, 
he  said,  suppressed  their  snarls  and  barks  till  they  were  out 
of  sight. 

Doubtless  the  snarling  turned  to  cheering  when,  soon  after- 
wards, the  castle  was  occupied  by  the  Royalists.  The  garrison 
was  again  commanded  by  a  poet.  Sir  John  Denham,  composer 
of  the  first  English  descriptive  poem.  He  was  better  supplied 
than  the  Parliamentarian  captain,  for  he  had  a  hundred  soldiers 
under  his  command.  Besides,  it  seems  that  Wither,  in  spite 
of  the  dignity  of  his  retreat,  had  left  his  300  sheep  behind. 
Sir  John  Denham  did  not  hold  out  long  when  Sir  William 
Waller  appeared  before  the  walls  of  the  castle.  It  does  in 
fact  appear  to  have  been  untenable,  and  Denham  lacked 
resource.  On  December  i  the  outer  gate,  whose  weakness 
Wither  had  bemoaned,  was  broken  in  with  a  petard.  A 
wooden    palisade   beyond   it   proved    no  obstruction  to  the 

E.E.P.  L 


146      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

besiegers.  Denham  yielded  at  once,  and  was  allowed  to 
retire.  The  fate  of  the  sheep  is  unknown,  but  the  two  poets 
never  forgave  one  another.  Wither  received  compensation 
for  his  losses  in  the  shape  of  a  grant  of  his  rival's  house,  and 
was  much  disgusted  when  in  pity  for  Lady  Denham  the 
Parliament  restored  it  to  her.  He  poured  out  his  grievances 
in  angry  prose,  far  different  from  his  sweeter  Ij^ics.  His 
wife,  said  he,  must  have  what  house  she  could,  while  Parlia- 
ment gave  to  Denham's  wife  the  house  she  fancied.  Den- 
ham retaliated  by  pleading  for  his  rival's  life,  saying  that 
while  Wither  lived  he  would  not  be  the  worst  poet  in 
England. 

In  the  capture  of  the  castle  the  Parliamentarians  all  but 
lost  one  of  their  most  skilled  commanders.  As  Waller  had 
entered  the  building  and  was  passing  through  a  narrow 
passage  he  barely  escaped  a  shot  fired  by  one  of  his  own  men, 
who  was  following  him.  The  townspeople,  too,  did  not 
content  themselves  with  passive  antagonism.  On  one 
Sunday,  appointed  by  the  Parliament  for  a  general  fast, 
they  crowded  riotously  into  the  Great  Park,  driving  away 
the  deer  and  jeering  at  the  keeper  and  the  ordinances  of 
Parliament. 

It  is  said  that  Waller  soon  afterwards  commanded  the 
destruction  of  the  keep,  but  it  does  not  appear  to  have  been 
totally  dismantled  until  1654.  In  the  early  years  of  the 
Civil  War  Farnham  was  an  important  base  of  the  Parlia- 
mentary operations  in  the  southern  counties,  and  the  habit- 
able part  of  the  castle  was  converted  into  a  kind  of  frontier 
fortress.  In  the  winter  following  its  capture  Waller  was 
obliged  to  fall  back  upon  it,  and  while  entrenched  at  Farn- 
ham was  alarmed  to  see  a  Royalist  force  four  times  as  large 
as  his  own  gathering  upon  a  hill   in   the   Great   Park.     He 


FARNHAM    CASTLE  147 

attributed  his  deliverance  to  divine  intervention.  A  thick 
mist  fell,  and  the  enemy  dared  not  attack  in  the  darkness. 
When  the  fog  was  driven  away  he  was  so  strongly  placed 
that  the  enemy  retired  on  Crondall,  and  the  Parliamentarian 
flag  was  left  to  wave  defiance  from  the  walls  of  the  castle. 

From  time  to  time  during  the  next  two  years  Farnham 
was  filled  with  Parliamentary  troops,  sent  thither  from 
the  counties  round  London  to  join  Waller's  army  in  the 
south.  He  sent  prisoners  there  to  be  guarded  at  the  castle 
and  in  the  church.  The  castle  was  converted  into  a  depot 
for  ammunition  and  stores  for  the  troops  in  the  neighbour- 
hood. This  became  the  more  necessary  as  the  resources  of 
the  country  round  were  exhausted  by  the  troops  who  wintered 
in  the  town. 

Early  in  1645  the  castle  was  left  more  or  less  unprotected, 
and  charges  of  treachery  were  brought  against  a  certain 
Mr.  Stoughton.  These  were  probably  connected  with  a 
surprise  attack  by  General  Goring,  who  occupied  the  town 
for  the  king,  January  g,  but  only  held  it  for  one  day.  Later 
in  the  year  the  garrison  was  reorganized,  but  the  gentlemen 
of  Surrey  had  been  alarmed  at  the  thought  of  a  Royalist 
stronghold  on  their  very  borders,  and  begged  that  the  castle 
might  be  demolished.  It  was  not  yet  entirely  destroyed. 
In  1648  it  was  still  a  garrison,  and  the  captain  was  com- 
manded to  keep  a  look  cut  for  Royalists  who  were  raising  a 
troop  of  horse  in  the  neighbourhood.  Then  there  were  new 
fears  of  a  surprise,  and  the  Parliamentary  captain  did  his 
best  to  strengthen  his  command.  Finally  an  order  came  for 
the  demolition  of  all  its  fortifications,  so  as  to  render  it 
indefensible  within  a  fortnight.  Six  years  later  the  same 
captain  was  still  at  the  work  of  destruction,  doling  out  stones 
from  the  keep  to  the  townsmen  to  pave  their  streets. 

L    2 


148      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL   PALACES 

Thus  ends  the  military  history  of  the  fortress  built  by 
Henry  of  Blois,  After  an  existence  of  500  years  the  walls  of 
the  massive  keep  were  broken  down  to  pave  the  streets  of 
the  little  town  which  it  had  protected.  The  mound  within 
served  for  many  years  as  an  orchard  or  a  kitchen  garden. 
Now  nothing  could  be  more  peaceful  than  the  smooth  turf 
borders  and  well  kept  flower-plots  which  cover  it.  Even  in 
1648  the  battered  outer  walls  must  have  looked  sadly  altered 
to  Charles  I.  as  he  rode  out  of  the  town,  where  he  had  slept 
at  Vernon  House,  a  prisoner  buoyed  up  with  vain  hopes  of 
escape. 

During  the  next  few  years  no  care  seems  to  have  been 
bestowed  on  the  castle.  Once  more  it  became  the  home  of 
daws  and  crows.  After  the  Restoration,  Brian  Duppa,  the 
new  bishop,  lived  scarcely  long  enough  to  set  in  order  so 
much  that  had  been  destroyed  in  the  last  twenty  years, 
although  he  did  begin  to  repair  the  castle.  The  election  of 
his  successor,  George  Morley,  in  1662,  brought  in  a  new  era. 
It  was  he,  who,  deciding  to  leave  warfare  alone,  rebuilt  the 
domestic  part  of  the  building,  leaving  the  keep  in  its  now 
ruinous  state.  He  was  so  noted  for  his  Hberality  that 
Charles  II.  declared  that  he  would  never  be  the  richer  by  the 
great  income  of  the  see.  Indeed,  he  spent  it  largely  on 
rebuilding  his  palaces  with  great  magnificence.  He  made 
many  alterations  in  the  great  hall  at  Farnham,  reducing  its 
length  by  20  feet,  and  adding  to  its  comfort  by  building  a 
wide  fireplace.  He  fitted  the  chapel  with  stalls  and  a  screen 
of  carved  woodwork,  and  also  put  up  heavily  carved  balus- 
trades upon  the  main  staircase.  Yet  in  the  midst  of  all  this 
growing  splendour  he  contented  himself  with  an  austere  life, 
sleeping  in  a  little  room  under  the  entrance-tower,  only  8  feet 
square,  reminded  of  the  futility  of  his  grandeur  by  the  constant 


FARNHAM    CASTLE  149 

presence  of  his  coffin,  and  rising  at  five  every  morning  to 
study,  winter  and  summer,  without  a  fire.  Before  1672  he 
spent  ;;r8,ooo  on  the  castle.  The  king  and  the  Duke  of  York 
had  known  him  well  in  the  time  of  their  exile,  and  often 
visited  him  at  the  castle  after  his  consecration.  Their 
constant  visits  tried  the  temper  of  the  bishop,  generous  as  he 
was,  and  in  his  irascible  way  he  "  murmured  mightily,"  and 
asked  some  who  told  the  king  again  whether  he  intended 
to  make  the  bishop's  house  always  an  inn.  The  report  of 
his  complaints  put  an  end  to  the  royal  visits,  and  the  king 
looked  about  to  provide  himself  with  a  good  house  on  the 
way  to  Winchester. 

Nevertheless,  the  bishop  was  most  hospitable.  His  chap- 
lain for  a  time  was  Bishop  Ken,  who  practised  an  austerity 
similar  to  his  own.  There  is  not  much  to  connect  Ken  with 
the  castle,  for  his  chaplaincy  was  short ;  but  his  brother-in- 
law,  Isaac  Walton,  spent  many  a  day  under  the  bishop's 
roof.  After  his  wife's  death  the  good  old  angler  spent  a 
great  part  of  his  time  as  Morley's  guest,  and  the  castle 
looking  down  upon  the  valley  of  the  Wey  would  have  great 
attractions  for  him.  It  is  thought  that  it  was  here  that  he 
wrote  the  lives  of  Hooker  and  Herbert.  The  fifth  edition  of 
the  "  Complete  Angler  "  is  dated  from  the  castle.  He  used  to 
spend  the  Christmas  there  and  had  a  lodging  of  his  own, 
where  he  left  his  books  and  a  "desk  of  prints  and  pickters." 
Morley  had  also  more  disagreeable  guests — his  nephews, 
who  came  for  what  they  could  get  from  their  uncle's  rich 
bishopric.  For  three  weeks  during  which  the  poor  bishop 
lay  upon  his  death-bed  they  would  scarcely  let  him  have  time 
to  say  his  prayers,  for  fear  he  should  die  before  he  had  sealed 
and  signed  the  favourable  leases  of  the  episcopal  property 
which  they  had  induced  him  to  make  in  the  time  of  weakness. 


I50      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL   PALACES 


Even  if  unadvised,  Morley's  liberality  had  saved  the  castle 
from  further  decay.  His  successor,  the  "  old,  honest 
Cavalier,"  Peter  Mews,  would  have  been  more  fitly  lodged 
in  the  keep.  He  had  been  a  loyal  soldier  of  the  king  in 
the  Civil  War,  and  soon  after  his  consecration  took  part  in 
the  battle  of  Sedgmoor.  His  portrait  in  the  castle  drawing- 
room  shows  the  black  patch  which  hid  a  wound  in  his  cheek. 
Though  he  firmly  resisted  the  unconstitutional  proceedings 
of  James  II.,  court  gossip  declared  that  the  king  begged  a 
refuge  at  Farnham  in  the  time  of  his  troubles. 

The  succeeding  bishop,  the  "spiritual  dragoon,"  Sir 
Jonathan  Trelawney,  was  roused  to  indignation  by  the 
presence  in  Farnham  of  French  prisoners  of  war.  Among 
them  was  the  Bishop  of  Quebec,  who,  with  his  ecclesiastics, 
was  on  parole  not  to  leave  the  town,  until  their  "  impudent 
perverting  of  Martha  Newland  to  the  Popish  religion  "  caused 
them  to  be  put  under  restraint.  Added  to  the  dislike  for 
foreigners  which  still  remained  with  the  inhabitants  of  "  one  of 
the  loveliest  spots  in  England,"  as  the  French  bishop  called  it, 
was  the  suspicion  that  their  guards  had  brought  to  the  town 
a  severe  epidemic  of  small-pox. 

The  eighteenth-century  bishops  were  mostly  courtiers,  but 
they  spent  a  great  part  of  their  time  at  Farnham.  Bishop 
Trimnell  was  a  zealous  supporter  of  the  royal  prerogative ; 
and  Hoadly,  a  leader  of  the  Latitudinarian  party  both  in 
Church  and  State,  was  chaplain  to  George  I.  and  intimate  at 
Court.  In  the  time  of  Bishop  Thomas  the  connection 
between  the  sovereign  and  Farnham  Castle  was  renewed  ; 
but  the  frequent  visits  of  George  III.  to  his  old  tutor  were 
very  different  from  the  gay  hunting  parties  of  Charles  I.,  or 
the  magnificent  entertainment  prepared  for  James  I.  They 
were  quiet  and  homely  visits,  which  continued  till  the  bishop's 


FARNHAM    CASTLE  151 

death,  A  little  more  ceremony  was  used  m  a  congratulatory 
visit  on  his  birthday.  One  Sunday,  the  king  on  hearing  that 
Thomas  would  be  eighty-one  next  day,  exclaimed:  "Then  I 
will  go  and  wish  him  joy."  The  queen,  not  to  be  outdone 
in  kindness  said  that  she  would  go  too.  So  the  royal 
phaeton,  with  three  coaches  and  six  and  one  coach  and  four, 
and  a  large  retinue  of  servants,  set  out  early  in  the  morning 
and  arrived  at  Farnham  in  time  for  eleven  o'clock  breakfast, 
for  the  king  had  risen  at  six  and  the  royal  family  usually 
joined  him  at  the  chapel  at  eight.  The  king  had  brought 
with  him  the  princes  and  the  Princess  Royal.  Prince 
William,  with  his  sunny  ways,  "  engaged  the  heart"  of  the 
old  bishop,  and  would  stay  with  him  while  the  rest  of  the 
party  rambled  about  the  house.  The  accomplished  Mrs. 
Chapone,  friend  of  Dr.  Johnson  and  of  Richardson,  was 
there,  and  made  tea  for  the  humbler  guests  in  the  dressing- 
room.  She  was  proud  when  the  queen  introduced  the 
Princess  Royal  as  one  who  had  profited  much  by  her  "  Letters 
on  the  Improvement  of  the  Mind."  Yet  Mrs.  Chapone  was 
not  very  happy  at  Farnham,  and  soon  ceased  to  visit  the 
castle.  At  that  time  its  chief  beauty  was  the  fine  avenue  of 
elms  in  the  Little  Park,  three  quarters  of  a  mile  in  length. 
It  is  broken  now,  but  still  retains  some  of  its  old  grandeur. 

The  gloomy  splendour  of  the  old  house,  little  altered  since 
the  days  of  Bishop  Morley,  was  unpleasing  to  Mrs.  North, 
the  fashionable  wife  of  the  new  bishop,  who  owed  his 
preferment  to  the  influence  of  his  brother,  the  prime 
minister.  She  mingled  as  much  of  modern  elegance  and 
fashion  as  she  could  with  its  old-world  glory,  while  her 
husband  strove  to  recover  the  Little  Park  from  the  ill-effects 
of  years  of  neglect.  The  old  regime  at  the  castle  was  fast 
dying  out.     The  last  constable  had  surrendered  his  office  to 


152      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

the  bishop,  and  the  sole  remaining  "  burgess  "  in  the  Httle 
town  below  had  "  dissolved  "  himself,  giving  up  the  precious 
charters  for  which  his  predecessors  had  struggled.  For 
nearly  eight  centuries  the  bishops  of  Winchester  had  ruled 
in  the  civil  affairs  of  their  tenants  about  Farnham  as  well  as 
in  their  spiritual  life.  It  was  with  sorrow  that  Bishop 
Sumner,  who  has  justly  been  called  the  last  of  the  prince- 
bishops,  saw  the  transfer  of  the  civil  jurisdiction  of  the  see  to 
the  Ecclesiastical  Commissioners.  It  was  the  dawn  of  a  new 
era  throughout  all  the  country.  In  the  time  of  the  riots 
and  disturbances  which  preceded  the  Reform  Bill,  the  men 
of  Farnham,  who  had  welcomed  their  new  bishop  with 
eager  enthusiasm  three  years  before,  dragging  his  carriage 
through  the  town  and  up  the  steep  hill  to  the  castle  door,  now 
turned  upon  him,  angered  at  the  opposition  of  the  bishops  to 
the  Bill.  The  rioters  marched  in  great  numbers  up  the  hill 
leading  to  the  castle,  which  they  intended  to  attack.  They 
were  only  prevented  from  doing  so  by  the  massive  entrance- 
gates,  which  had  been  repaired  by  Bishop  Sumner.  They 
turned  back  into  the  town  and  showed  their  wrath  by 
preparing  to  burn  an  effigy  of  the  bishop.  The  effigy  was 
saved  from  destruction  only  to  be  replaced  by  another. 

The  bishop  received  many  distinguished  visitors  at 
Farnham.  Among  them  was  the  Duke  of  Wellington  who 
rode  over  from  his  home  at  Strathfieldsaye  to  discuss  the 
Roman  Catholic  Relief  Bill.  Wilberforce,  who  afterwards 
succeeded  to  the  bishopric  but  never  lived  at  Farnham,  was 
often  a  visitor  in  his  predecessor's  time,  and  many  men  of 
note  in  the  literary  world  visited  Sumner  as  their  friend.  In 
the  summer  of  1856  he  was  honoured  by  a  visit  from  Queen 
Victoria.  She  rode  over  in  the  evening  from  the  camp  at 
Aldershot  where  the  Wellington  College  had  recently  been 


FARNHAM    CASTLE  153 

opened.  Approaching  the  castle  by  way  of  the  great 
avenue  in  the  park,  she  ahghted  at  the  garden  gate,  and  was 
shown  over  the  house  and  keep  by  the  bishop. 

He  continued  to  hve  at  Farnham  after  his  resignation  of 
the  see  in  1869.  It  was  for  this  reason  that  Bishop  Wilber- 
force  did  not  make  it  his  abode.  At  the  beginning  of  the 
episcopates  of  Bishop  Browne  and  Bishop  Thorold  the 
removal  of  the  residence  of  the  bishops  to  Winchester  was 
seriously  considered.  Bishop  Browne  was  troubled  by  the 
"long  passages,  staircases,  and  boundless  roof"  of  Farnham 
Castle,  but  soon  began  to  love  the  place  and  its  associations 
and  to  take  pride  in  the  rare  possession  of  a  Norman  oak  pillar. 
He  improved  the  great  hall  by  putting  in  mullioned  windows; 
but  the  palatial  house  was  always  a  burden  to  him,  and  his 
successor.  Bishop  Thorold,  once  again  threatened  to  break 
the  link  which  had  bound  Farnham  to  Winchester  for  a 
thousand  years.  Happily  he  changed  his  plans,  and  under  his 
care  the  whole  building  was  repaired  and  remodelled ;  corri- 
dors were  pierced,  the  great  drawing-room  was  hung  with 
the  Garter  portraits  of  his  predecessors,  from  Brian  Duppa 
onwards,  and  the  gloomy  wilderness  of  attics,  inappropriately 
called  "Paradise"  and  "Arcadia,"  were  converted  into 
bright  cubicles  fitted  up  for  the  entertainment  of  ordination 
candidates.  It  was  not  the  interior  of  the  building  alone 
that  occupied  his  attention  ;  it  is  due  to  him  that  the  former 
kitchen  garden  within  the  keep  has  given  place  to  the  trim 
parterres  of  an  Old  English  flower-garden.  Bishop  Browne 
had  entertained  the  Anglo-Continental  Society  at  the  castle, 
and  Bishop  Thorold's  hospitality  was  lavish.  He  loved  the 
very  stones  of  his  home  with  its  outlook  over  the  town  in 
the  valley  to  the  distant  hills  of  Hindhead,  and  grew  to 
consider  it  "  as  indissolubly  a  part  of  the  see  of  Winchester 


154      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

as  Lambeth  is  of  Canterbury."  To  enable  his  successors  to 
Hve  there  he  bequeathed  to  them  the  bulk  of  its  furniture ; 
nor  is  the  building  without  traces  of  its  last  master,  the 
present  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 

Although  with  Bishop  Sumner  there  ended  the  succession 
of  princely  bishops  who  for  many  centuries  had  ruled  at 
Farnham,  the  castle  is  still  the  home  of  generous  hospitality, 
and,  above  all,  the  centre  of  organization  and  life  in  the 
great  work  of  the  Church  throughout  the  diocese  of 
Winchester. 


€H  Of^  (paface  of  Eincofn 


A  CITY  set  on  a  hill  that  cannot  be  hid;  a  church 
held  high  like  a  minster  on  the  hand  of  a  painted 
saint ;  a  triumphant  gloria  with  its  challenge  to 
all  that  pass  by :  such  is  Lincoln  seen  from 
below.  The  cathedral  first  draws  the  eye ;  then  the  castle  ; 
then,  perhaps,  a  tower  with  a  house  close  by  among  the 
trees,  which  emphasizes  with  a  narrow  finger  the  huge 
length  of  the  minster  just  behind.  This  is  the  palace — the 
"  Old  Palace,"  as  it  is  called,  as  if  to  conjure  up  visions  and 
wraiths  of  the  saints,  sovereigns,  statesmen,  sinners  who 
have  bound  its  long  tale  inseverably  with  the  story  of  the 
years  and  of  the  realm. 

Perhaps  on  no  English  city  has  the  Roman  occupation  left 
such  permanent  traces  as  at  Lincoln,  where  a  Roman  gate- 
way still  gives  entrance  to  the  town  which  the  Romans 
founded  on  the  hill.  For  Lincoln  is  divided  into  two  distinct 
districts :  the  high  quarter  where  both  castle  and  cathedral 
lie,  and  the  clustering  city  below  them  on  the  Witham 
bank.  It  was  on  the  hill  that  the  first  settlement  was  made, 
and  here  the  Romans  formed  their  camp.  Traders  followed 
the  legionaries,  and  a  wall  was  built  on  the  old  military  lines, 
so  that  the  first  Roman  city  of  Lindum  Colonia  arose.  For 
in  Lincoln,  as  in  London,  the  population  in  time  outgrew 
the  straitness  of  the  lines,  and  the  city  was  enlarged  by  pro- 
longing the  east  and  west  walls  southward  down  the  hillside 


156      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

to  within  eighty  yards  of  the  stream.  The  original  city 
covered  about  thirty-eight  acres,  and,  being  mihtary  in  origin, 
it  lay  four-square,  so  that  a  wall  pierced  by  a  gate  faced  each 
point  of  the  compass.  On  the  east  this  wall  ran  just  east  of 
the  deanery  and  across  the  site  of  the  chapter-house,  its 
south-east  corner  being  near  the  bishop's  gateway,  whence 
going  west  it  followed  the  line  of  the  wall  of  the  palace 
grounds. 

Invaders  plundered  and  burnt  the  city — the  Newport  Arch 
still  bears  marks  of  the  fire  ;  but  probably  some  vestiges 
remained  in  Saxon  times,  for  to  this  day  the  upper  city  and 
Bailgate,  its  chief  street,  still  follow  the  Roman  plan. 

With  the  Conquest  came  many  changes ;  first  the  castle 
was  built  by  the  Conqueror  in  the  south-west  corner  of  the 
first  Roman  city — a  site  covered  with  at  least  i66  small 
houses,  all  of  which  were  destroyed.  The  city  must  have 
presented  rather  a  dilapidated  appearance  in  1086,  for  the 
jurors  who  made  the  Domesday  return  declared  that 
there  were  also  seventy  decayed  houses  without  the  castle 
bounds,  but  they  were  hasty  to  add  that  these  were  ruined 
not  by  the  oppression  of  sheriffs  or  officials,  but  by  misfortune, 
poverty,  and  fire.  At  this  time  Lincoln  was  not  the  seat  of 
the  bishopric  which  now  bears  its  name.  After  many 
vicissitudes  following  the  pohtical  fortunes  of  the  land  the 
see  of  Dorchester  was,  in  1066,  established  at  Stow,  already 
little  more  than  a  village  though  formerly  of  greater  import- 
ance. Remigius  determined  to  move  his  bishop's  stool  to 
Dorchester,  the  Oxfordshire  village  whence  the  see  took  its 
name ;  and  he  had  begun  to  build  there  when,  in  1073,  the 
Council  of  Windsor  decreed  that  bishops  should  transfer 
their  seats  from  villages  to  towns.  But  before  Remigius 
could  carry  out  this  order  land  had  to  be  provided  for  the 


THE    OLD    PALACE    OF    LINCOLN     157 

buildings  which  would  be  required,  and  the  bishops  of 
Dorchester  had  none  in  Lincoln  though  there  had  been 
churches  there  ever  since  Paulinus,  in  628,  had  built  a  stone 
church  of  beautiful  workmanship  which  was  still  standing 
when  Bede  wrote,  though  the  roof  had  fallen  in,  either  from 
age,  neglect,  or  the  malice  of  men.  This  was  no  obstacle  to 
Remigius,  who  had  been  present  at  Hastings  and  had  seen 
one  difficulty  after  another  disappear  before  the  Conqueror. 
Among  the  lands  forfeited  by  Saxons  in  Lincoln  were  thirty 
holdings  (mansiones)  and  a  hall,  once  the  property  of  Joch, 
son  of  Out,  who  had  had  rights  in  each  of  the  three  churches 
there.  The  hall  was  granted  to  Geoffrey  Alselin  ;  but 
Remigius  procured  from  the  king  the  thirty  holdings  as  well 
as  a  small  manor  and  other  lands  both  within  and  without 
the  walls.  The  date  of  the  transfer  of  the  see  has  been  much 
disputed,  but  it  was  probably  about  1076  that  William  I. 
gave  this  land,  and  by  1086  Domesday  Book  records  that 
the  "  Bishop  of  Lincoln  "  was  in  possession.  By  this  grant 
almost  the  whole  of  the  eastern  half  of  the  ancient  Roman 
city  passed  into  the  hands  of  the  bishop,  for  at  this  date  the 
chapter  was  really  only  his  council,  and  it  was  not  until  later 
that  the  land  was  divided  between  them — part  going  to  form 
the  palace  grounds  and  part  the  close. 

Remigius,  having  secured  his  land,  at  once  began  to  build 
his  cathedral  on  the  site  of  the  Church  of  St.  Mary  Magda- 
lene and  wholly  within  the  bounds  of  the  Roman  wall — as 
the  chronicler  says,  "  on  the  very  peak  of  the  city  of  Lincoln, 
high  up  next  that  most  strong  castle."  Remigius  did  not 
see  it  consecrated,  for  a  dispute  with  the  Archbishop  of  York 
caused  delay,  and  when  at  last  the  bishops  had  consented  to 
perform  the  ceremony,  Remigius  was  dying.  Whether  he 
also   built   any  palace  here,  or  had  any  fixed   dwelling  for 


158      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 


himself,  is  not  known  ;  if  he  had  such  a  dwelling  it  was 
probably  on  another  site  and  not  where  the  palace  now 
stands. 

In  1094  Robert  Bloett  succeeded  to  the  see,  which  had 
been  kept  vacant  by  William  Rufus  until  in  a  panic,  during 
an  illness  at  Gloucester  in  1093  he  made  Anselm  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury  and  gave  Lincoln  to  his  chancellor.     Bloett 
resigned  his  office  on  becoming  bishop  ;  but  on  the  accession 
of  Henry  II.  he  received  yet  greater  promotion  as  justiciar, 
and  was  high  in  royal  favour.     As    bishop,  he   surrounded 
himself  with  magnificence  and  such  state  that  Robert,  the 
king's  son,  was  among  the  youths  trained  in    his   service. 
Henry  of  Huntingdon,  his  archdeacon,  tells,  in  his^^  Contemptu 
Mundi,  of  how  as  child,  youth,  and  young  man,  he  wondered 
at  the  bishop's  display,  and  of  how,  later  in  Hfe,  the  knights 
fully  equipped,  the  noble  lads  in  his  household,  the  valuable 
horses,  the  vessels  of  gold  or  silver-gilt,   the   garments   of 
purple  and    eastern  silk,    all    left  him  with  the  sense  of  a 
splendour  that  could  not  be  excelled.     It  must  have  been 
during  this,  his  period  of  pomp,  that   Bloett  received  from 
the  king  that  charter  which  gives  the  first  indication  we  have 
of  a  palace  at   Lincoln.     Whether  Bloett  built  it  or  not,  a 
bishop's  house,  or  "  episcopium,'"  was  evidently  there  on  a 
site  without  the  bailey  wall,  for  Henry  sent  Ranulf  Meschins, 
Earl  of  Chester,  Osbert  the  sheriff,  and  Picot  son  of  Colsuen, 
an   intimation  that  he  had  granted  to  Robert,  the  Bishop 
of    Lincoln,    leave    to    make   an   opening   in    the   wall    of 
the  castle  for   access  to   his   dwelling,  provided  that   such 
exit   did    not   weaken    the   wall.     It   is   probable  that    this 
entrance  was  in  the  position  of  the  present  gateway,  which 
cuts  through  the  line  of  the  wall  of  the  second  Roman  city ; 
that  the  wall  was  intact  at  this  point  may  be  inferred  from 


THE    OLD    PALACE    OF    LINCOLN     159 

the  fact  that  just  south  of  the  gateway  a  large  block  of  it 
still  remains  as  the  division  between  the  vicar's  court  and  the 
episcopal  demesne. 

Some  such  entrance  was  made  necessary  by  the  nature  of 
the  ground,  for  on  the  south  the  escarpment  of  the  hill  was 
too  steep  for  the  approach  of  horsemen  or  a  train  of  followers 
unless  on  foot,  and  on  the  west  the  Church  of  St.  Michael  on 
the  Mount  already  separated  the  land  occupied  by  the  bishop's 
land  from  Bailgate.  There  is,  moreover,  no  trace  of  an 
ancient  approach  on  either  of  these  sides,  and  in  a  city  such 
as  Lincoln,  where  roads  and  customs  are  apt  to  keep  their 
ancient  way,  some  weight  must  be  attached  to  this  negative 
evidence. 

Robert  Bloett,  though  holding  such  high  office  in  the 
State,  seems  to  have  lacked  decision  of  character,  and  in  his 
latter  years  suffered  much  from  suits  brought  against  him  by 
an  inferior  justiciar.  These  actions  and  the  heavy  fines 
imposed  were  a  source  of  great  grief  to  the  bishop  who,  as 
Henry  of  Huntingdon  relates,  weptat  a  banquet  at  beholding 
his  retinue  diminished  in  its  pomp  through  the  heavy  drain 
on  his  revenues.  At  the  same  time,  while  feeling  so  bitterly 
against  the  king  that  he  said  one  day,  '*  The  king  praises  no 
one  of  his  servants  but  him  whom  he  wills  to  hurt  to  the 
quick,"  he  remained  in  touch  with  the  Court,  as  the  story  of 
his  death  shows.  One  day  in  1123  he  rode  with  Henry  and 
the  Bishop  of  Salisbury  through  the  royal  deer  forest  of 
Woodstock,  talking,  when  suddenly  he  fell  forward  with  the 
cry,  "  My  lord  the  king,  I  am  dying."  Straightway  Henry 
dismounted  and  took  him  in  his  arms.  They  bore  him  to  the 
lodge,  where  the  bishop  died.  Then  with  great  pomp  they 
brought  his  body  to  Lincoln,  and  buried  it  before  the  altar 
of  St.  Mary  there.     In  the  previous  year   there  occurred  a 


i6o      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL   PALACES 

disastrous  fire  in  Lincoln ;  almost  the  whole  of  the  city  was 
destroyed,  though  it  is  expressly  stated  that  the  minster  and 
the  bishop's  palace  escaped.  So  great  was  the  destruction 
that  the  news  spead  far  and  wide,  and  it  was  recorded  as  one 
of  the  chief  events  of  the  year  by  the  writer  of  the  "  Annals  of 
Margam  "  far  off  in  Wales. 

Robert  Bloett  was  succeeded  by  Alexander,  whose  taste 
ran  to  building  rather  than  to  the  maintenance  of  a  princely 
retinue,  and  to  him  the  see  owed  the  three  castles  of  Newark, 
Sleaford,  and  Banbury,  all  of  which  were  later  favourite 
residences  of  the  bishops.  There  is,  however,  no  evidence 
that  Alexander  wrought  anything  at  his  palace  in  Lincoln, 
though  he  obtained  more  land  there;  and  Henry  I.  notified 
William  de  Albini  and  William  son  of  Haco,  then  sheriff, 
that  he  had  granted  to  Bishop  Alexander  the  East  Gate  with 
the  lands  beyond  for  his  entertainment.  Long  afterwards 
this  land  was  given  by  the  bishop  for  the  enlargement  of  the 
deanery  which  stands  exactly  at  the  west  of  the  old  line  of 
the  wall. 

But  a  few  years  later  the  city  was  involved  in  the  stress  of 
civil  war,  and  all  thought  of  building  aught  but  castles  of 
necessity  came  to  an  end.  When  in  1140  the  Empress 
Matilda  landed  in  England  and  made  her  claim  to  the  throne; 
she  took  up  a  position  for  a  time  at  Lincoln  Castle  until 
Stephen  drove  her  out,  and,  having  garrisoned  the  castle, 
went  his  way.  Although  he  was  imprisoned  and  illtreated 
by  Stephen  the  bishop  remained  an  adherent  of  the  Crown, 
and  was  with  the  king's  army  in  1141.  Lincoln  Castle  was 
held  for  Stephen  until  that  year,  when  it  was  taken  by 
stratagem  by  Ranulf,  Earl  of  Chester,  and  his  brother  William 
de  Romara,  Earl  of  Lincoln.  Alexander  was  apparently 
staying  at  Lincoln  at  the  time,  for  he,  as  well  as  the  citizens 


THE   OLD    PALACE   OF   LINCOLN     i6i 

sent  word  to  Stephen  of  the  loss.  Accordingly  the  king 
marched  to  the  city.  He  appears  to  have  entered  it  with 
little  trouble,  for  only  the  castle  was  held  by  the  opposing 
force,  the  upper  town  being  evidently  in  the  bishop's  hands. 
And  a  bishop  of  Lincoln  of  the  twelfth  century  was  no  mere 
ecclesiastic,  but  as  William  of  Malmesbury  assures  us,  one  of 
the  most  powerful  barons  of  the  realm,  with  a  goodly  force  of 
knights  at  his  command.  Here  too  the  Roman  walls  are 
apparently  decayed,  but  the  East  Gate,  as  we  have  seen,  was 
in  the  bishop's  hands,  while  the  southern  boundary  was 
probably  already  occupied  by  the  bishop's  house,  which  at  that 
date  was  bound  to  be  a  fortified  dwelling.  This  commanded 
the  greater  part  of  the  south  slope  of  the  hill,  while  just 
north  of  it  was  the  cathedral,  also  in  the  bishop's  hands, 
and  directly  fronting  the  gate  of  the  actual  bail  of  the 
castle.  It  was  therefore  but  a  natural  precaution — and  one 
not  unprecedented  at  that  time — for  Stephen  to  seize  the 
cathedral  and  to  convert  it  into  his  chief  stronghold,  for 
which  indeed  its  solid  Norman  stonework  made  it  not 
unsuitable.  Stephen  reached  Lincoln  with  his  army  in  the 
octave  of  Christmas,  1141,  and  was  probably  lodged  with 
his  follower  the  bishop.  He  invested  the  castle,  but  could 
not  prevent  the  escape  of  Ranulf,  Earl  of  Chester,  who  went 
with  all  speed  to  his  father  Robert  of  Gloucester,  and  both 
returned  with  a  strong  force  to  relieve  the  besieged.  The 
army  of  the  barons  reached  Lincolnshire  on  the  second  of 
February,  and  encamped  on  the  western  side  of  the  hill.  On 
that  morning,  being  Candlemas  Day,  the  king  went  in 
solemn  state  to  Mass,  and  made  his  offering  of  a  great  candle 
at  the  high  altar.  Alexander  the  bishop  stood  there  in  all 
splendour  of  vestment  ready  to  receive  the  gift.  The  candle 
was  lighted,  and  the  king  knelt  with  it  in  his  hands ;  but  in 
E.E.P.  M 


i62      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

the  very  handling  it  broke  in  two  and  went  out.  Great  was 
the  consternation  of  the  many,  and  great  that  of  the  king — so 
great  that  a  hundred  years  later  Richard  of  Wendover,  prior 
of  Belvoir,  could  relate  it  in  his  "  Flowers  of  History."  Nor 
was  this  the  only  sign  of  coming  misfortune,  for  when  the 
great  mystery  had  been  wrought  and  Alexander  raised  the 
pyx  aloft  for  worship,  the  thread  that  fastened  it  broke,  and 
the  vessel  fell  on  the  altar-stone — a  forecast  of  the  ruin  of 
the  realm.  It  must  have  been  with  a  sick  heart  that 
Stephen  left  the  church,  and  drew  up  his  lines  of  battle. 
The  day  went  against  him  ;  all  around  the  king  were  cap- 
tured or  fled ;  and  at  length  Stephen,  beaten  to  the  ground, 
was  himself  taken  captive,  and  sent  as  a  prisoner  to  Bristol. 
The  city  was  bound  to  suffer,  and  a  great  part  of  the  citizens 
were  slaughtered  ;  of  the  fate  of  the  bishop's  palace  nothing 
is  known,  but  when  such  general  allies  of  the  king  suffered  it 
is  hardly  likely  that  the  bishop,  his  acknowledged  friend, 
should  have  escaped.  That  the  palace  was  destroyed  before 
the  middle  of  the  twelfth  century  seems  certain  from  the 
remark  of  Giraldus  Cambrensis — that  Robert  de  Chesney 
began  to  build  "  on  the  old  foundations." 

Alexander  was  succeeded  in  1143  by  Robert  de  Chesney,  a 
young  man  belonging  to  one  of  the  most  important  families 
in  Oxfordshire.  Though  lacking  strength  of  character  he  was 
popular  with  all  classes ;  his  election  by  the  chapter  was 
unanimous,  and  both  Stephen  and  the  people  greeted  the 
news  with  great  joy,  partly  probably  because  his  reputation 
for  humility  and  simplicity  was  in  marked  contrast  to  the 
pride  of  Alexander.  Robert  de  Chesney  was  not,  however, 
wanting  in  appreciation  of  his  state  as  bishop  of  a  great 
see :  his  ideas  in  fact  outran  his  means,  and  like  so  many  of 
his  contemporaries  he    solved  the   problem  thus  raised  by 


THE   OLD    PALACE   OF   LINCOLN     163 

recourse  to  the  Jews.  To  this  he  had  pecuHar  temptation, 
for  the  greatest  money-lender  of  his  time  lived  almost  at 
the  bishop's  doors.  Aaron  the  Jew  of  Lincoln  was  a  power 
throughout  the  land ;  nearly  every  great  noble  was  in  his 
debt,  and  the  bishop  was  only  following  the  fashion  in 
pawning  to  him  the  ornaments  of  his  cathedral  church  in 
return  for  3^300.  With  this  money  he  began  to  build  the 
palace,  which  he  proposed  should  stretch  from  Roman  wall 
to  Roman  wall.  Henry  H.  visited  Lincoln  between  1154 
and  1 157,  and  the  bishop  took  this  opportunity  of  obtaining 
from  him  a  grant  which  fixes  the  limits  of  his  palace  as 
much  those  of  the  present  demesne.  At  the  same  time 
the  form  of  the  grant  shows  it  to  have  been  a  confirmation 
of  existing  liberties  and  conditions,  so  that  it  in  no  way 
militates  against  the  theory  that  the  bishops  of  Lincoln  had 
fixed  their  abode  at  this  spot  at  an  earlier  date.  Why  a  con- 
firmation was  considered  advisable  is  not  known,  but  probably 
Robert  de  Chesney  was  about  to  extend  the  buildings  of  the 
palace,  and  was  anxious  that  the  land  he  was  about  to  cover 
should  be  acknowledged  by  the  king  as  part  of  the  original 
gift  of  William  L  In  this  way  the  bishop  was  saved  the 
risk  of  the  land  being  afterwards  claimed  as  "  purpresture" 
or  land  "jumped  "from  the  royal  demesne.  This  security 
was  of  importance,  as  the  officers  of  the  Crown  were  active 
in  making  such  claims,  and  a  heavy  annual  quit-rent  was 
frequently  exacted.  The  charter  of  Henry  II.  accordingly 
defines  the  boundaries  of  the  bishop's  land  as  running  from 
the  churchyard  of  St.  Michael  on  the  Mount  as  far  as  the 
churchyard  of  St.  Andrew  ;  and  from  the  churchyard  of  St. 
Andrew  as  far  as  the  wall  of  the  city — that  is,  the  second 
Roman  wall,  on  the  east ;  and  grants,  moreover,  the  ditch  of 
the  bail  wall  on  the  east.     The  king  also  confirmed  the  rights 

M   2 


i64      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL   PALACES 

appurtenant  to  the  land,  and  expressly  freed  the  bishop  from 
land  gable  or  land  tax,  parcage,  and  all  other  dues.  This 
was  important,  as  taxation  was  being  reorganized,  and  the 
question  of  the  bishop's  immunity  from  the  ordinary  fiscal 
burdens  of  his  neighbours  was  bound  to  arise.  Though  the 
great  Galilee  porch — the  state  entrance  of  the  bishops — had 
not  yet  been  added  to  the  cathedral,  they  probably  always 
entered  by  a  door  in  the  transept,  and  Robert  de  Chesney 
applied  to  Henry  II.  for  permission  to  make  an  entrance 
opposite  to  it  and  through  the  ancient  wall  of  the  bail.  A 
clause  was  therefore  added  to  the  charter  empowering  the 
bishop  to  make  such  a  door,  and  part  of  it  may  still  be  seen, 
though  the  earth  has  crept  up  until  all  but  the  jambs  are 
covered,  and  the  grass  touches  the  spring  of  the  arch.  The 
arch  itself  is  heavy  and  round.  The  door  was  probably 
not  very  lofty,  and  it  was  certainly  narrow,  for  the  distance 
from  jamb  to  jamb  is  but  six  feet,  just  sufficient  for  a 
stately  procession  to  the  church,  but  quite  inadequate  to  an 
army  such  as  invariably  clustered  round  a  bishop  of  that 
day. 

Robert  de  Chesney  died  in  1166,  and  was  succeeded  by 
Geoffrey,  an  illegitimate  son  of  Henry  II.  and  some  mistress, 
who  was  not,  however.  Fair  Rosamund,  as  used  to  be  main- 
tained. Soon  after  his  father's  accession  Geoffrey  was 
acknowledged  as  his  son  and  brought  up  in  the  royal  house- 
hold, though  destined  for  the  Church.  He  took  deacon's 
orders  when  quite  a  boy,  and  at  a  very  early  age  was  made 
Archdeacon  of  Lincoln.  In  1173,  when  scarcely  twenty, 
Henry  secured  his  election  to  the  bishopric.  Papal  dis- 
pensations were  obtained  to  overcome  the  obstacles  of  his 
youth  and  birth,  and  in  July,  1175,  Archbishop  Richard  of 
Canterbury  confirmed  the  election  in  the  name  of  the  Pope. 


THE   OLD    PALACE    OF   LINCOLN     165 

But  Geoffrey  had  no  desire  either  for  priest's  orders  or 
consecration  ;  he  preferred  the  camp  to  the  Church,  and 
young  as  he  was  he  succeeded  in  quashing  the  revolt  of  his 
brothers  and  of  the  Scots  in  1174.  Energetic,  and  a  good 
man  of  business,  one  of  his  first  acts  was  to  redeem  the 
ornaments  of  the  cathedral  which  Robert  de  Chesney  had  so 
rashly  pawned ;  and  besides  restoring  these  he  added  to  the 
treasures  of  the  minster  two  bells  which  still  exist  in  the 
Great  Tom.  But  through  all  his  vigorous  administration 
he  made  no  attempt  at  securing  further  orders  ;  and  so 
great  did  the  scandal  become  that  in  1181  the  Pope  called 
upon  him  to  resign  or  be  consecrated.  Resignation  fitted  in 
with  the  plans  of  Henry  11. ,  and  his  son  accepted  his  advice. 
On  the  feast  of  the  Epiphany,  1182,  the  see  accordingly 
became  vacant,  and  it  was  not  until  the  following  year  that 
Walter  de  Coutance  became  Bishop  of  Lincoln. 

Walter  died  two  years  later,  when  his  successor  was  the  man 
afterwards  known  far  and  wide  as  St.  Hugh  of  Lincoln.  A 
French  Carthusian  with  a  reputation  for  asceticism  and 
business  capacity,  Henry  HL  called  him  to  England  to 
reorganize  his  foundation  of  Witham  Priory,  and  made  him 
his  friend.  It  was,  therefore,  with  personal  knowledge  of 
the  man  that  Henry,  in  1186,  procured  Hugh's  election  to  the 
see  of  Lincoln.  Hugh  took  up  his  residence  at  Stow,  and 
besides  administering  the  diocese  he  began  to  enlarge  his 
cathedral  to  the  east.  The  palace  also  was  his  care.  What 
was  the  plan  of  the  older  building  it  is  impossible  to  say : 
if  there  are  foundations  they  are  probably  now  deep  under- 
ground. The  earliest  building  now  standing  in  the  palace 
grounds  is  part  of  the  fair  hall  which  Hugh  began  to  build  "  in 
the  sure  and  certain  hope,"  as  the  chronicler  tells  us,  "with 
God's  aid  to  bring  it  to  completion."    This  hope  was  not  to  be 


i66      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

fulfilled;  but  St.  Hugh  was  building  for  a  see  and  not  for  an 
episcopacy,  and  the  work  carried  on  by  his  successors  still 
show  traces  of  its  glory  even  in  decay.  But  beautiful  as  the 
hall  was,  it  was  surpassed  in  every  way  by  the  choir  and  the 
eastern  transepts.  It  was  these,  rather  than  the  hall  of  the 
palace,  that  struck  the  imagination  of  the  time,  and  stories 
were  told  afterwards  of  how  the  saint  himself  wrought  at 
the  building,  carrying  a  hod  with  the  meanest  of  his  men. 

Probably  Hugh  did  not  live  much  in  Lincoln ;  he  pre- 
ferred Stow,  where  lived  the  swan  that  followed  him  like  a 
dog  and  afterwards  became  his  emblem.  Though  both 
gentle  and  devout,  so  that  even  lepers  were  not  loathsome  in 
his  sight,  his  perfect  moral  courage  made  him  withstand  the 
demand  of  the  Crown  for  a  money-grant  in  iigS — the  first 
refusal  of  the  kind  ever  made  in  England — and  enabled  him 
to  reprimand  King  John.  He  was,  indeed,  much  employed 
in  affairs  of  State,  and  it  was  on  royal  business  that  he  was 
summoned  to  France  in  that  year.  Before  he  left  he  went 
to  Lincoln,  where  he  bade  his  canons  farewell,  giving  to  each 
the  kiss  of  peace,  and  commending  them,  in  the  words  of 
the  apostle,  "to  God  and  to  the  word  of  His  grace."  When 
Hugh  returned,  he  entered  Lincoln  amid  plaudits  such  as 
might  greet  a  conqueror  from  a  great  crowd  drawn  not  only 
from  the  city,  but  from  the  diocese.  In  1200  he  set  out  for 
France  once  more,  but  the  journey  was  his  last.  On  his 
way  home  he  caught  a  fever,  and  struggled  back  to  his 
London  house  in  Southampton  Row  to  die  on  November  16 ; 
two  days  later  the  funeral  procession  set  out  for  the  north. 
The  clergy  and  people  of  London,  with  crosses  and  tapers, 
saw  the  mourners  on  their  way  far  beyond  the  city.  Every- 
where through  the  fields  and  the  townships  the  people,  of 
either  sex  and  every  condition,  flocked  to  meet  the  procession, 


THE   OLD   PALACE   OF   LINCOLN     167 

striving  to  touch  the  coffin  with  their  hands.  Northward 
through  Hertford,  Biggleswade,  Buckden,  Stamford,  and 
Ancaster,  they  journeyed,  and  at  length  on  November  23 
they  reached  the  city.  Lincoln  has  seen  many  splendid 
sights,  and  the  ages  have  given  her  pageantry  in  full,  but 
probably  never  did  it  see  more  solemn  pomp  than  on  the 
day  of  the  funeral  of  St.  Hugh.  It  was  the  time  of  a  great 
council,  and  all  the  nobles  of  the  realm  were  assembled 
there,  and  there,  too,  was  the  King  of  Scots.  So  the  streets 
were  full  not  only  of  the  people  of  Lincoln  and  the  diocese — 
men  who  had  known  and  loved  their  bishop — but  of  men  at 
arms,  and  all  the  throng  attached  to  the  lords,  drawn  by 
curiosity  and  report.  On  the  slope  of  the  hill  the  procession 
was  met  by  the  two  Kings  of  England  and  Scotland.  Even 
John  was  sobered,  and  the  King  of  Scots  shed  tears  in  the 
sight  of  all.  Then  the  King  of  England  and  his  great  nobles 
took  the  coffin  to  bear  it  to  the  cathedral,  but  often  the 
bearers  were  relieved,  for  all  would  ha\  e  a  share  in  the  glory 
of  that  toil.  Thus,  through  the  mud,  up  the  steep  streets 
of  the  town,  past  the  Jewry,  where  the  Jews  bewailed 
him  in  their  fashion,  the  procession  moved  onwards  to  the 
ringing  of  bells  and  sound  of  hymns  until  it  came  to  the 
great  church  itself. 

It  was  not  surprising  that,  with  sentiment  so  poignant, 
miracles  followed.  Worshippers  thronged  round  the  tomb, 
and,  in  popular  opinion,  Hugh  of  Avalon  was  accounted  a 
saint  long  before  his  canonization  in  1220.  A  long  list  of 
wonders  brought  men  from  all  parts  of  the  north,  so  that 
Giraldus  Cambrensis  couples  St.  Thomas,  the  red  rose  of 
Kent — "rosy  with  his  precious  blood  outpoured" — with 
St.  Hugh,  the  bright  lily  of  Lincoln. 

William  of  Blois,   the  successor  of  St.    Hugh,  seems   to 


i68      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL   PALACES 

have  carried  on  the  work  both  of  the  cathedral  and  the 
palace  hall,  both  of  which  were  unfinished  when  he  was 
succeeded  in  1209  by  Hugh  of  Wells.  The  operations  must 
have  been  much  hindered  by  the  turmoil  of  the  barons'  wars, 
in  which  Lincoln  played  no  inconsiderable  part.  In  May, 
1217,  the  army  of  the  barons  retired  from  the  siege  of 
Montsorrel  to  attack  Lincoln  Castle,  which  was  held  for 
King  John  by  the  brave  old  lady,  Nicholaa  de  la  Hay,  and 
certain  officers  of  the  king.  Roger  de  Wendover  probably 
saw  them  as  they  marched  down  the  valley  of  Belvoir  past 
his  monastery,  and  he  has  described  how  miserable  was  their 
array  as,  clad  in  tattered  garments,  they  burnt  and  harried 
all  they  passed.  The  defences  of  the  city  were  no  better  in 
1217  than  they  had  been  in  1141,  and  the  royal  forces  were 
in  no  condition  to  hold  Lincoln,  even  if  the  theory  of  war  at 
that  time  had  looked  upon  the  occupation  of  a  city  as  impor- 
tant. The  castle  in  their  opinion  was  the  only  really  needful 
point,  and  the  baronial  party  was  allowed  to  occupy  the  town, 
and  not  merely  the  lower  portion  of  it,  but  also  the  hall,  the 
palace,  and  the  cathedral.  From  this  eastern  position  the 
barons  poured  a  ceaseless  fire  of  stones  into  the  bailey  of  the 
castle,  and  destroyed  many  of  the  buildings  there.  So  great 
was  the  danger  that  a  strong  Royal  force  was  sent  to  the 
relief  of  the  castle  under  William  Marshal,  Earl  of  Pembroke, 
and  Peter,  the  fighting  Bishop  of  Winchester.  The  barons 
were  thus  between  the  forces  of  the  besieged  and  relievers  in 
precisely  the  same  way  as  the  forces  of  King  Stephen  had 
been  some  eighty  years  before  ;  their  position  was,  however, 
fairly  secure,  for  they  could  not  be  attacked  from  the  south, 
where  the  town  was  doubly  guarded  by  the  Witham  and 
Sencil  dykes.  The  relieving  force  made  its  way  to  the  west 
side  of  the  city,  and  there  established  communication  with 


THE    OLD    PALACE   OF   LINCOLN     169 

Nicholaa  de  la  Hay  and  her  men  in  the  castle.  Then  came 
the  problem  of  how  to  get  at  the  besiegers.  The  long 
French  poem,  which  purports  to  be  a  history  of  William 
Marshal,  tells  how,  when  finally  the  old  Newport  Arch  had 
been  forced  and  an  attack  became  possible,  Peter,  Bishop  of 
Winchester,  in  high  good  humour  called  to  the  men  to  spare 
the  palace  for  him.  William  Marshal  gave  the  order 
"  Charge  !  "  adding,  "  They  will  soon  be  conquered.  Shame 
on  him  who  tarries  longer."  Swifter  than  a  merlin,  he 
spurred  on  his  charger,  and  all  those  who  were  with  him 
were  heartened  at  the  sight.  Into  the  crowd  he  pressed,  the 
bishop  behind  crying,  "  God  aid  the  marshal."  With  the 
whole  weight  of  his  force  behind  him  he  drove  the  enemy 
before  him,  clear  first  of  the  bail  and  then  down  the  hill.  In 
such  a  position  retreat  could  only  be  rout.  Down  through 
the  narrow  lanes,  so  steep  that  now  no  vehicle  attempts 
them,  the  battle  was  carried.  Bargate  stood  in  the  way; 
narrow  and  old  as  the  Newport  Arch,  the  door  was  fastened 
by  a  bar  which  swung  of  its  own  accord.  Each  fugitive 
came  up  to  find  the  way  blocked ;  to  dismount  in  mail, 
unhasp  the  bolt,  speed  through  as  the  door  clanged,  took 
time,  and  time  was  freedom  that  day.  But  even  when 
through  the  gate  it  was  only  to  find  that  a  flank  move- 
ment had  here  cut  off  retreat.  Complete  victory  as  the 
"  Fair  of  Lincoln"  was,  the  battle  was  singularly  bloodless. 
The  poem  speaks  of  many  wounded,  bruised,  or  made  prisoner, 
but  Roger  of  Wendover  knew  of  only  three  slain.  And  it 
cost  the  citizens  of  Lincoln  dear.  Once  again  the  place 
was  given  over  to  pillage,  and  the  whole  city  was  spoiled 
to  the  last  farthing.  The  soldiers  broke  open  every  chest 
with  hammers,  and  carried  off  from  them  gold  and  silver, 
the    scarlet   cloth    for   which    Lincoln    had   won    fame,   the 


170      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL   PALACES 


women's  ornaments,  gold  rings,  cups,  and  precious  stones — 
all  the  luxuries  in  fact,  which  the  merchants  had  bought 
for  their  pleasure  and  adornment.  Not  even  the  cathedral 
escaped  this  plague,  for  the  Legate  had  given  the  soldiers 
to  understand  that  they  might  regard  the  canons  as  excom- 
municate, having  been  enemies  to  the  Roman  Church 
and  the  King  of  England  from  the  beginning  of  the  war. 
That  the  palace  did  not  escape  may  be  assumed  from  the 
jest  made  by  Bishop  Peter  before  the  attack  ;  Hugh  of  Wells, 
moreover,  was  well  known  as  an  adherent  of  the  barons,  and 
so  was  considered  excommunicated  and  a  suitable  victim. 
It  is  perhaps  significant  that  a  few  years  later  the  offices  and 
kitchens  there  were  newly  built.  At  any  rate  there  is  no 
reason  to  suppose  that  it  escaped  a  plunder  which  left  no 
corner  untouched,  until,  peace  proclaimed  within  the  city, 
each  returned  a  rich  man  to  his  lord. 

It  was  probably  to  a  much  battered  house  that  Bishop 
Hugh  returned  at  the  close  of  the  war ;  but  at  first  the 
administration  of  his  diocese  and  the  work  at  the  cathedral 
occupied  all  his  energy,  for  the  north  transept  was  being 
built,  and  in  1220  "  the  Dean's  Eye  " — that  great  rose-window 
which  fills  the  end — first  shone  forth.  Then  the  bishop  found 
himself  free  to  repair  his  palace,  and  finish  the  work  St.  Hugh 
had  begun.  The  interest  of  Henry  III.  in  architecture  was 
well  known,  and  Hugh  enlisted  his  sympathies  in  the  work 
when  the  king  came  to  Lincoln  in  1224.  It  was  but  a  short 
distance  from  the  castle  to  the  palace,  and  Henry  must  have 
seen  the  unfinished  hall,  and  probably  discussed  the  plan 
with  the  bishop.  Nor  was  his  interest  ineffectual,  for  he 
promised  timber  for  the  work,  and  issued  a  mandate  to 
Hugh  de  Nevill,  keeper  of  the  royal  forest  of  Sherwood, 
empowering  him  to  cut  down  forty  trunks  of  trees  to  make. 


THE   OLD    PALACE   OF   LINCOLN     171 

beams  and  joists  for  the  hall  at  Lincoln,  and  ordered  that 
the  timber  should  be  taken  at  a  point  where  the  bishop's 
men  could  best  take  it  in  charge.  The  king  did  not  stop 
here,  for  in  the  same  year  he  wrote  to  the  mayor  and  bailiffs 
of  Lincoln  to  intimate  that  he  had  given  licence  to  the 
bishop  to  hew  stone  in  the  fosse  of  the  city  near  the  palace, 
and  to  use  that  stone  for  building  his  house,  provided  that 
he  could  do  so  without  injury  to  the  city.  The  meaning  of 
this  grant  is  somewhat  obscure,  but  probably  the  idea  was  to 
increase  the  steepness  of  the  southern  escarpment  of  the 
hill  by  removing  the  stone  and  using  it  for  building  purposes 
on  the  terrace  thus  formed.  Seven  years  later,  Henry  gave 
a  similar  power  to  the  dean  and  chapter,  who  were  to  use 
for  the  fabric  of  the  church  and  the  repair  of  their  houses 
such  stone  from  the  ditch  of  Lincoln  Castle  as  the  sheriff 
might  think  conduced  to  the  improvement  of  that  ditch. 
Hugh  of  Wells  went  further ;  for,  to  the  south  of  the  hall 
and  overhanging  the  wall  of  living  stone  which  the  masons 
had  just  cleared,  he  built  a  mass  of  kitchen  buildings,  with  the 
butteries  and  pantries  needed  for  service.  There  is  nothing 
to  show  at  what  date  they  were  finished,  but  the  upper  town 
of  Lincoln  must  have  rung  with  the  sound  of  mallet  and 
hammer  in  1233,  when  all  this  work  was  going  on  at  the 
palace,  when  just  above  it  men  were  busy  on  the  minster, 
and  when,  just  to  the  west,  they  were  mending  the  king's 
lodging  at  the  castle  and  rebuilding  the  western  gate  there 
which  had  almost  fallen  to  the  ground. 

In  1235  Hugh  of  Wells  was  succeeded  by  Robert 
Grosseteste,  one  of  the  greatest  English  prelates  of  the 
Middle  Ages.  As  prebendary  of  Empringham  in  Lincoln 
Cathedral  he  seems  to  have  been  deeply  impressed  by  the 
want  of  order  and  governance  in  the  chapter  due  to  lack  of 


172      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL   PALACES 

outside  control.  Of  this  criticism,  however,  his  fellow-canons 
were  happily  ignorant,  and  after  some  quarrelling  they 
unanimously  elected  him,  in  1235,  to  fill  the  empty  see. 
Grosseteste  encouraged  the  work  on  the  cathedral,  as  the 
nave  and  west  front,  the  western  transept,  and  the  Galilee 
porch  bear  witness  ;  but  the  canons  found  to  their  amaze- 
ment that  the  bishop  proposed  not  merely  to  adorn  the 
church,  but  to  reform  the  chapter.  The  episcopal  zeal  was 
shown  within  the  very  year  of  Grosseteste's  consecration, 
when  he  held  a  visitation  of  the  monasteries  under  his 
rule  and  removed  the  superiors  from  eleven  houses.  The 
panic  in  the  diocese  was  great,  and  great  was  the  horror  of 
the  canons  in  1239  when  they  received  official  intimation 
that  the  bishop  would  visit  his  cathedral  in  spite  of  the  grant 
of  immunity  from  episcopal  jurisdiction.  This  grant  was 
the  canons'  only  refuge  from  Grosseteste,  whose  ideal  bishops 
were,  as  he  said,  as  beasts  of  the  Apocalypse,  not  merely 
winged,  but  full  of  eyes  before  and  behind.  By  Whitsuntide 
the  chapter  had  sent  a  proctor  to  Rome,  and  by  the  autumn 
the  dean  and  chief  dignitaries  had  followed  him  there,  so  that 
when  Grosseteste  arrived  at  his  cathedral,  as  he  had  pro- 
mised, on  October  18,  not  a  single  member  of  the  cathedral 
body  was  there. 

It  was,  of  course,  a  public  insult,  and  Grosseteste  must 
have  spent  a  disturbed  evening  at  his  palace,  but  a  few  yards 
away.  For  years  the  struggle  dragged  on,  and  it  was  not 
until  1245,  after  both  dean  and  bishop  had  appealed  to  the 
Pope  at  Lyons,  that  a  papal  judgment  was  obtained ;  this 
was  satisfactory,  on  the  whole,  to  the  bishop,  though  the 
canons  secured  some  minor  points  in  contention. 

To  the  history  of  the  palace  the  struggle  is  chiefly  of 
importance  as  limiting  its  use  during  this  period,  and,  as  far 


THE   OLD    PALACE   OF   LINCOLN     173 

as  is  known,  Grosseteste  made  no  additions  to  the  fabric. 
At  the  same  time  more  details  have  come  down  to  us  of  his 
manner  of  life  than  of  almost  any  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  with 
the  possible  exception  of  St.  Hugh.  Though  a  stern  opponent 
of  malpractices,  whether  of  king,  Pope,  or  lesser  men,  his 
honesty  of  purpose  and  frankness  left  his  opposition  without 
sting,  and  when  once  his  quarrel  with  his  chapter  was  settled 
he  became  their  very  good  friend.  With  the  king,  too,  he 
was  on  intimate  terms,  and  his  hospitality  was  well 
known.  It  was,  perhaps,  in  the  banqueting  hall  at  Lincoln 
that  he  entertained  the  Earl  of  Gloucester  at  dinner,  and 
astonished  him  by  the  perfection  of  his  manners.  It  was  a 
fast-day,  and  wolf-fish  were  the  chief  fare.  The  earl  sat 
by  the  bishop's  side,  and  the  dapifer  or  butler  entered  bear- 
ing the  fish  ;  the  best  he  placed  before  his  lord,  the  smaller 
he  gave  to  the  earl.  The  bishop  frowned  and  ordered  : 
"  Either  take  away  the  fish  or  place  as  good  a  one  before  the 
earl."  Knowing  Grosseteste's  humble  origin,  the  earl  was 
surprised,  and  he  did  not  seek  to  hide  his  astonishment. 
"  My  lord  bishop,"  he  exclaimed,  "  if  I  may  ask  without 
offence,  I  should  like  to  know  where  you  learnt  such 
courtesy,  for  we  understand  you  are  of  humble  birth,  and 
yet  you  act  as  one  used  to  the  ways  of  the  world."  "  Very 
true  it  is,  my  lord  earl,"  was  the  dignified  reply,  "  that  my 
father  and  mother  were  humble,  but  yet  irom  my  youth  I 
was  nurtured  among  men  and  masters  of  the  highest  virtue 
of  life."  We  even  know  of  some  of  his  domestic  worries. 
The  bishop's  cook  died,  and  to  fill  his  place  he  had  to  borrow 
a  certain  John  of  Leicester  from  his  friend  the  Countess  of 
Leicester,  the  sister  of  Henry  III.  John  proved  a  good 
cook — one  probably  who  followed  the  bishop's  taste  and 
used  pepper  rather  than  ginger  to  give  flavour  to  his  sauces — 


174      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

and  Grosseteste,  in  asking  that  the  loan  might  be  made 
permanent,  wrote  a  letter  which  made  his  friend  Adam  Marsh 
at  once  laugh  and  cry.  Grosseteste  was  indeed  no  believer 
in  asceticism  ;  and  a  story  is  told  of  how,  when  a  friar  of 
melancholy  aspect  came  to  him,  he  enjoined  on  him  as  a 
penance  that  he  should  drink  a  cup  of  the  best  wine.  The 
friar  had  to  obey,  but  it  was  much  against  his  will,  and  the 
joy  of  the  onlookers  was  great  when  the  bishop  tenderly 
remarked :  "  My  dear  friar,  if  you  had  such  a  penance 
frequently  you  would  have  a  better  ordered  conscience."  So, 
too,  his  robust  common  sense  was  heard  in  a  dictum  to  a 
Dominican  :  "  There  are  three  things  necessary  to  earthly 
salvation — food,  sleep,  and  good  humour."  His  fondness  for 
music  was  well  known,  and  it  is  related  how  : — 

"  He  lovede  moche  to  here  the  harpe, 
For  mans  witte  it  makyth  sharpe ; 
Next  hys  chamber,  besyde  his  study, 
Hys  harpers  chamber  was  fast  the  by. 
Many  tymes  by  nightes  and  dayes 
He  hadd  solace  of  notes  and  layes," 

In  1253  the  bishop  died,  and  in  the  same  year  the  chapter 
elected  their  dean,  Henry  de  Lexington,  to  the  see.  Neither 
he  nor  his  immediate  successors  are  known  to  have  made  any 
permanent  alterations  to  the  palace,  though  Oliver  Sutton 
was  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  reform,  and  built  the  Vicars' 
Court  just  without  the  palace  gate,  that  there  the  vicars- 
choral  might  form  a  college.  It  was  not  until  the  second 
decade  of  the  fourteenth  century  that  fresh  work  was  under- 
taken. With  the  fourteenth  century  began  a  period  of  calm 
greater  than  that  which  Lincoln  had  enjoyed  for  many  a 
year.  Battles  there  were  none ;  the  palace  was  little  visited, 
for  the  bishops  were  great  men  of  affairs,  busied  not  merely 


THE   OLD    PALACE   OF   LINCOLN     175 

with  their  huge  diocese,  but  with  the  ordering  of  the  kingdom 
at  large.  Buckden  was  more  accessible  and  more  central 
than  Lincoln,  and,  moreover,  afforded  sport  for  their  leisure, 
and  when  the  affairs  of  the  see  made  a  visit  to  Lincoln 
needful  Nettleham,  where  Bishop  Gravesend  had  entertained 
Edward  L  in  1276,  was  more  to  their  taste  than  their  Lincoln 
palace. 

But  though  wars  had  ceased,  the  country  was  disturbed 
by  robberies ;  danger  became  great  to  the  canons  and  the 
vicars  as  they  went  to  and  fro  between  their  lodgings  and  the 
church  for  the  services  at  night;  for  the  close,  a  wide  space, 
held  many  shadows.  Oliver  Sutton  had  obtained  licence 
from  the  king  for  the  canons  to  surround  their  close  with  a 
wall,  wherein  should  be  gates  which  might  be  secured  at 
dusk  ;  but  the  work  seems  to  have  been  ill-done  or  not  done 
at  all,  for  in  1327  royal  commissioners  were  appointed  to 
inquire  into  the  enclosure  of  the  precinct,  and  whether  it 
would  be  detrimental  to  the  king's  interests.  One  of  the 
special  articles  of  inquiry  dealt  with  that  part  of  the  city 
wall  which  joined  the  precinct  on  the  south  of  the  church 
from  the  wall  of  the  bailey  to  the  southern  head  of  the 
vicars'  garden,  and  this  piece  was  certainly  crenellated  within 
the  next  two  years.  Henry  Burghersh  was  Chancellor  of 
England,  and  it  was,  according  to  the  grant,  in  acknow- 
ledgment of  "  his  profitable  services  and  the  great  place  he 
holds  in  the  direction  of  the  king's  affairs  "  that  in  1329  he 
received  licence  to  repair  and  crenellate  the  walls  of  his 
palace.  Crenellation  probably  did  not  mean  much,  but  it 
was  the  fashionable  fad  of  the  day  when  the  old  fortified 
dwelling-houses  were  fast  passing  and  the  manor-houses 
taking  their  place.  What  was  important  to  the  bishop  was 
the  additional  grant  of  the  old  piece  of  Roman  wall  which 


176       ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL   PALACES 

separated  the  palace  from  Vicars'  Court.  This  wall  contained 
in  length  18J  perches,  as  measured  by  the  standard  rod  of 
20  feet.  The  length  seems  to  indicate  that  the  bishop  had 
already  purchased  "  the  lower  garden  "  from  the  mayor  and 
citizens.  This  step  was  probably  necessitated  by  the 
discovery  that  the  walls  of  Bishop  Hugh's  kitchen  were 
bearing  outwards  and  needed  immediate  attention  if  a 
collapse  was  to  be  avoided.  Accordingly,  on  the  piece  of 
land  acquired  just  under  the  wall,  the  bishop  erected  the  two 
great  buttresses  of  dressed  Ancaster  stone,  which  are  still  one 
of  the  most  conspicuous  objects  on  the  hillside  when  viewed 
from  below. 

When  Bishop  Burghersh  obtained  his  licence  to  crenellate 
he  was  careful  to  secure  a  clause  in  the  same  charter  granting 
to  the  palace  "  the  immunity  and  ecclesiastical  liberty  of  the 
church,  its  cemetery  and  other  places  within  the  precincts." 
This  was  really  not  only  a  confirmation  of  the  grant  by  which 
the  bishop  was  to  be  quit  of  all  dues  whatsoever,  but  also 
was  an  acknowledgment  of  the  court  held  in  the  room  above 
the  Galilee  porch,  at  which  offences  committed  in  the  close 
received  their  punishment.  What  was  the  incident  which 
made  this  confirmation  desirable  is  not  known,  but  in  1385 — 9 
the  bishop,  John  Bokyngham,  paid  50s.  to  the  king  for  a 
further  confirmation  of  the  right.  A  few  years  later  the 
charter  proved  useful.  In  1393 — 5  there  was  great  ill-feeling 
between  the  dean  and  the  chapter,  and  so  high  did  animosity 
become  that  the  friends  of  the  dean  and  the  friends  of  the 
canons  formed  two  distinct  and  somewhat  disorderly  parties. 
One  winter's  night  Simon  the  bell-ringer  was  making  his 
way  back  to  his  lodging  after  ringing  for  service  ;  he  had 
got  as  far  as  the  north  porch  of  the  great  transept,  when 
suddenly,  out  of  the  shadows,  seven  of  the  dean's  household 


THE    OLD   PALACE   OF   LINCOLN     177 

sprang  upon  him.  Vainly  he  tried  to  get  into  the  church, 
but  the  odds  were  against  him,  and  the  door  was  held  fast. 
Wounded,  Simon  fell  to  the  ground  with  blood  streaming 
down  his  face.  Great  was  the  sensation,  when  service  was 
over  and  the  news  spread  of  what  had  been  done.  As  soon 
as  day  broke  a  messenger  went  hot-haste  to  the  bishop  at 
Stow,  and  Bokyngham  saw  that  a  crisis  had  come.  Straight- 
way the  bishop  took  the  road,  going  to  the  palace,  where  he 
called  before  him  his  chancellor,  John  Bottesham,  and  John 
Kele,  Prebendary  of  St.  Mary  Crakepool.  Investing  them 
with  power  to  make  an  inquiry  and  examine  witnesses,  the 
bishop  sent  them  to  the  cathedral  across  the  road.  Many 
must  have  been  the  tales  which  he  heard  during  the  hour  or 
two  of  waiting  for  the  commissioners'  report,  but  at  last  they 
returned  and  had  their  interview. 

All  Lincoln  had  heard  of  the  scandal,  and  the  cathedral 
was  thronged  when  it  was  known  that  Bokyngham  himself 
would  go  there  to  make  pronouncement.  At  length  the  pro- 
cession appeared  through  the  Galilee  porch,  and  in  solemn 
judicial  fashion  the  bishop  took  his  seat  before  the  high 
altar.  Rising  to  his  full  height  he  pronounced  the  minster 
polluted  by  the  effusion  of  blood  and,  so,  unfitted  for  the 
service  of  God,  until  the  culprits  had  confessed  and 
penance  had  been  done.  To  that  intent  he  cited  the  guilty 
persons  to  appear  before  him  in  his  court  at  Stow.  Every- 
body of  course  knew  that  the  dean  was  the  real,  if  not  the 
actual,  delinquent,  and  every  one  appreciated  the  humour  of 
the  case  when,  on  the  feast  of  the  Epiphany,  the  dean  was 
excommunicated  in  his  own  cathedral  with  all  the  solemnity 
of  bell,  book,  and  candle.  The  subdean  was  now  at  the  head 
of  affairs,  and  it  fell  to  his  lot  to  ask  for  the  cathedral  to  be 
reconciled.  Bokyngham  felt  that  once  the  emphasis  thus 
E.E.P.  N 


178      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

made,  there  was  no  good  to  be  gained  in  laying  further  stress 
on  the  point,  and  on  the  following  Wednesday  he  performed 
the  reconciliation.  The  dean  did  not  escape  so  lightly,  for 
the  Court  of  Canterbury  took  the  matter  in  hand,  and  on 
February  18  the  archbishop  pronounced  sentence,  ordering 
the  dean  and  his  accomplices  to  pay  the  bishop  twenty 
marks  for  his  trouble  in  reconciling  the  church. 

Such  was  one  of  the  incidents  which  would  bring  a  bishop 
of  Lincoln  to  his  cathedral  city.  Happily  scandals  of  the 
kind  were  not  frequent,  and  the  palace  seems  to  have  been 
little  used  during  the  fourteenth  century.  Probably  the 
older  buildings  had  fallen  into  disrepair  when  William 
Alnwick  was  translated  from  Norwich  to  Lincoln  in  1436. 
A  monk  of  St.  Albans,  taking  his  name  from  his  birthplace, 
Alnwick  had  won  a  reputation  for  learning  and  holiness 
which  gained  for  him  the  confidence  of  both  Henry  V.  and  his 
son.  He  was  promoted  to  the  Bishopric  of  Norwich  in  1426, 
and  was  well  known  as  a  prosecutor  of  Lollards.  At  Lincoln 
he  set  to  work  to  heal  the  dissensions  of  the  chapter,  and  in 
1439  he  issued  the  Laudum  or  award,  by  which  the  cathedral 
has  been  practically  governed  down  to  the  present  day.  The 
love  of  architecture  he  had  shown  at  Norwich — where  he 
restored  the  west  front  of  the  cathedral — prompted  him 
to  build  the  south  wing  of  the  schools  at  Cambridge  and 
soon  set  him  to  work  on  his  palace  at  Lincoln.  The  bishop's 
private  quarters  were  probably  both  old  fashioned  and 
incomplete,  so  that  Alnwick  was  justified  in  adding  an  east 
wing  in  which  were  a  chapel,  two  halls,  a  study,  and  other 
chambers.  These  he  connected  with  the  older  work  by  the 
beautiful  tower  which  bears  his  name  ;  this  stands  at  the 
north-east  corner  of  the  hall  and  gave  access  to  it,  to  the  new 
wing,  to  the  kitchen,  court,  and  to  what  is  now  the  drive. 


THE    OLD    PALACE    OF   LINCOLN     179 

As  this  building  of  Alnwick's  completed  the  old  palace,  it 
may  be  well  to  give  here  a  short  description  of  the  whole 
structure  as  it  must  have  appeared  at  this  time.  The  whole 
space  enclosed  was  a  quadrilateral  of  about  three  acres 
sloping  rapidly  down  the  hill  with  its  northern  end  many  feet 
higher  than  its  southern  bounds.  The  entrance  was  pro- 
bably at  the  extreme  north-east  corner  near  the  present  gate- 
way, though  that  dates  only  from  the  time  of  Bishop  Smith 
(1496 — 15 14)  whose  arms  surmount  it.  Passing  through  the 
gate  a  courtyard  was  probably  reached,  for  the  chapel  wing 
lay  on  the  south,  and  there  are  signs  of  ancient  fire-places  on 
the  bounding  north  wall.  A  little  further  west  the  court 
widened ;  on  the  site  of  the  present  house  were  more  build- 
ings, but  of  them  little  is  known,  though  a  long  structure  con- 
taining about  eight  rooms  was  still  standing  there  in  1660 
and  was  known  as  "the  officers'  lodging."  South  of  this  and 
on  a  lower  level  was  a  further  range  of  buildings,  to  which 
must  have  belonged  the  fire-places  shown  in  the  lower  wall  in 
Buck's  drawing  of  1726.  The  whole  of  the  eastern  side  of 
this  upper  court  was  occupied  by  the  great  hall,  built 
between  1200  and  1224.  Phe  best  idea  of  it  may  be 
gained  from  the  survey  taken  by  order  of  the  House 
of  Commons,  which  describes  it  as  "very  faire,  large, 
lightsome,  of  strong  freestone,  buildinge,  in  good  repaire, 
being  60  foote  of  assize  in  breadth,  and  go  foot  of 
assize  longe.  The  form  of  building  consisteth  of  one  large 
middle  allye  and  two  out  iles  on  eyther  syde,  with  8  gray 
marble  pillars,  bearing  up  the  arches  of  freestone  in  the  form 
of  a  large  church,  having  large  and  faire  freestone  windows, 
very  full  of  stories  in  paynted  glasse  of  the  kinges  of  this 
land.  The  fyre  is  used  in  the  middle  of  the  hall.  The 
roofe  is  very  stronge  tymber  covered  all  over  with  leade. 

N    2 


i8o      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

The  proporcon  of  it  is  much  lyke  the  bodye  of  Christe 
Church  in  London."  St.  Hugh  had  planned  his  hall  as  an 
oblong  with  sides  broken  only  by  windows,  in  which  he  set 
the  new  fashioned  transom,  so  that  a  casement  might  be 
inserted  when  the  bishop  was  there.  But  Alnwick  found  the 
design  too  severe,  and  in  the  north-west  corner  he  built  the 
bay  window  with  its  stone  seat  and  the  little  turret  stair 
which  still  remain.  In  depth  this  window  almost  cor- 
responded to  St.  Hugh's  great  porch,  which  opened  at  the 
south-west  corner  into  the  upper  court.  Even  as  late  as 
1784  Grimm  drew  this  porch,  showing  how  its  arcading 
rivalled  in  beauty  that  of  the  cathedral  choir.  Very  lovely 
too  was  the  south  wall  of  the  hall,  where,  adorned  with 
carving,  a  door  led  southward  to  the  kitchen,  and  was  flanked 
on  either  side  by  doors  to  butteries.  From  the  slope  of  the 
ground  the  kitchen  could  not  lie  close  next  to  the  butteries, 
but  was  some  thirteen  feet  beyond,  and  was  gained  through 
a  passage  over  a  kind  of  bridge.  Furnished  with  five  fire- 
places this  room  was  well  fitted  for  cooking  the  enormous 
joints  then  used ;  moreover  it  was  a  pleasant  room,  for 
windows  looked  southward  over  the  city  and  a  door  led 
downstairs  to  the  open  air  of  the  kitchen  court  on  the  east. 
The  only  room  in  this  block  above  the  ground  floor  of  which 
we  have  certain  knowledge  is  the  bishop's  solar  or  private 
apartment.  This  was  gained  from  the  hall  by  a  small  turret 
stair  placed  in  the  extreme  south-west  corner  between  the 
porch  and  the  western  buttery.  The  room  above  was  light- 
some and  pleasant,  for  two  windows  looked  south  over  the 
city  to  the  hills  and  distant  Trent.  Between  them  was  the 
fire-place,  and  on  the  wall  were  marble  corbels  to  uphold  the 
vaulted  roof  above  the  hangings  which  covered  the  walls 
with  manifold  colours  and  designs.     It  must  have  been  in 


THE   OLD    PALACE    OF   LINCOLN     i8i 

this  room  that,  on  one  December  day  in  135 1,  the  chapter 
and  precentor  made  up  in  Bishop  Gynwell's  presence  their 
quarrel  over  the  choice  of  a  schoolmaster  for  the  choir-boys, 
and  it  would  be  here  that  the  bishop  would  give  the  new  pre- 
bendary seisin  of  his  dignity  with  a  book  or  loaf  of  bread. 

Though  the  room  was  beautiful  it  is  quite  possible  to  see 
the  inconvenience  of  an  approach  to  it  up  so  narrow  a  stair 
and  through  the  great  hall  where  the  whole  household  met, 
and  Alnwick  accordingly  built  a  distinct  range  of  buildings 
to  the  east,  leaving  a  small  court — the  kitchen  court — 
between.  The  new  wing  was  joined  to  the  old  by  the  fine 
Alnwick  Tower,  with  its  four  doors — one  into  the  modern 
drive,  one  into  the  north-east  corner  of  the  great  hall,  and 
two  to  the  south,  one  opening  into  the  kitchen  court  and 
looking  over  its  slope  to  the  hills,  the  other  leading  into  a 
passage  which  ran  down  south  with  windows  on  to  the 
kitchen  court.  The  Parliamentary  Survey  records  that  in 
1649 — 51,  as  earlier,  there  opened  from  this  passage  two 
rooms,  the  lesser  hall  and  the  dining-room,  each  with  windows 
looking  on  to  the  court  round  which  the  block  was  built. 
The  north  end  of  this  court  was  formed  by  the  parlour  with 
the  chapel  above,  while  the  south  was  blocked  by  the  study 
with  windows  looking  south  over  the  countryside.  The 
chapel  was  Alnwick's  special  care :  he  dedicated  it  to  the 
Virgin,  the  patroness  of  Lincoln,  and  filled  the  windows  with 
painted  glass  wherein  were  quaint  Latin  verses  coupling  his 
name  with  hers.  Under  the  chapel  was  a  parlour  with  a 
bay  window  looking  into  the  inner  court,  and  a  dais  marked 
off  on  the  floor  of  coloured  tiles  by  a  yellow  line.  At  the 
western  end  of  the  room  was  a  pantry,  and  at  the  west  a 
stone  sideboard  was  let  into  the  wall  beneath  an  arched 
recess,  with  a  door  on  either  side  leading,  one  to  a  cellar,  the 


i82      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

other  to  the  Httle  hall.  There  was,  too,  a  stone  fire-place 
here,  and  a  private  kitchen  and  a  well  were  close  at  hand. 
Indeed,  beneath  the  whole  of  this  range  of  buildings  there 
were  cellars — some  for  storage,  one  for  a  brew-house,  others 
for  uses  conjectural  only.  Now  these  deep  underground 
rooms  are  all  that  are  intact,  for  the  state-rooms  have  gone, 
and  to  the  chambers  that  must  have  been  above  imagination 
is  the  only  guide. 

Such  was  the  palace  when  Henry  VII.  passed  Easter 
there  in  i486,  "  and  full  like  a  christen  prince,  herd  his 
dyvyne  service  in  the  cathedrall  churche  and  in  no  privie 
chapell.  And,  on  Shere  Tharsday  he  had  in  the  Bishops 
Hall  XXX  poore  men,  to  whom  he  humbly  and  cristenly, 
for  Crist  love  with  his  noble  handes,  did  wessh  ther  fete, 
and  gave  as  great  almes,  like  as  other  his  noble  progenitours, 
kynges  of  England,  have  been  accustomed  aforetyme." 

There  is  a  sort  of  fitness  in  the  fact  that  Wolsey  was  for  a 
few  months  in  1514,  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  for  his  career  may 
serve  as  a  type  of  the  fate  of  his  palace,  that  from  the  height 
of  its  splendour  passed  in  a  few  years  to  desolation  and 
decay.  When  Wolsey  was  translated  to  York  he  was  suc- 
ceeded at  Lincoln  by  his  friend,  William  Atwater,  who,  like 
Wolsey,  seems  to  have  done  little  or  nothing  to  the  palace ; 
indeed,  his  financial  position  probably  did  not  allow  of  it,  for 
in  1514  he  borrowed  from  Henry  VIII.  ;^6oo — a  considerable 
sum  at  that  date.  He  was  followed  by  one  whose  magnifi- 
cent displays  were  the  last  the  palace  should  se...  John 
Longland  was  the  king's  almoner  and  confessor  in  1521, 
when  he  was  promoted  to  Lincoln  on  the  death  of  Atwater, 
and  had  won  much  favour  with  Henry  VIII.  by  his  preaching. 
Longland  was  not,  however,  entirely  subservient,  or  even  as 
submissive  as  Cromwell  and  his  master  had  expected ;  but  at 


THE   OLD    PALACE    OF   LINCOLN     183 

the  same  time  he  was  one  of  Henry's  most  enthusiastic 
supporters,  both  in  the  matter  of  the  divorce  and  of  his 
independence  of  Rome.  This  is  the  more  interesting  in  face 
of  More's  eulogy  of  the  bishop  as  a  second  Colet,  both  in 
regard  to  his  preaching  and  the  purity  of  his  Hfe.  His  office 
as  confessor  gave  him  pecuhar  intimacy  with  Henry's  motives, 
and  that  a  man  of  Longland's  rectitude  should  have  taken 
Henry's  part  is  much  in  the  king's  favour. 

Longland  was,  in  fact,  a  perfect  epitome  of  the  Anglican 
position.  The  Pope  he  had  come  to  abhor — by  what  process 
is  not  clear — the  rights  and  doctrines  of  the  Church  he 
upheld,  and  the  supremacy  of  the  king  he  maintained.  It  is  not 
perhaps  surprising  to  find  that  he  was  popularly  misjudged. 
In  his  fashion  he  was  severely  orthodox,  and  he  was  hated  for 
the  way  in  which  poor  people  were  "  indited  for  small  matters 
of  pretended  heresy."  But  while  he  was  thus  disliked,  and 
not  without  reason,  by  the  reforming  party,  he  was  in  no  more 
favour  with  the  upholders  of  the  old  state  of  things.  The 
rebels  who  disturbed  the  north  by  their  Pilgrimage  of  Grace 
in  1536  especially  singled  Longland  out  as  one  of  the  royal 
ministers  who  had  brought  about  the  religious  changes  of 
the  last  few  years.  As  they  marched  through  the  country- 
side, headed  by  a  banner  bearing  the  marks  of  the  Five 
Wounds  of  Christ,  they  sang  a  party-song ;  the  last  verse 
runs : — 


"Crim,  Craine,  and  Riche, 
With  thre  111  and  the  liche 
As  sum  men  teache 

God  theym  amend. 
And  that  Aske  may 
Without  delay 
Here  make  a  stay 
And  well  to  end." 


i84      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

The  first  line  refers  to  Cromwell,  Cranmer,  Richard  Riche  ; 
the  "  thre  111"  were  Longland,  Dr.  Legh,  and  Dr.  Layton  ; 
while  by  "  the  liche "  was  meant  the  Bishop  of  Lichfield, 
almost  equally  obnoxious  to  the  pilgrims. 

Longland  was  too  careful  an  administrator  to  neglect  his 
estates,  and  under  him  the  palace  was  as  well  maintained  as 
it  had  been  by  any  of  his  predecessors,  and  so  great  was  its 
state  that  in  1541  it  was  held  sufficient  for  royal  entertain- 
ment. 

Great  must  have  been  the  preparations  in  the  late  spring 
of  1 541,  when  it  became  known  that  the  king  would  go  on 
progress  to  the  north  to  meet  the  King  of  Scots,  and  would 
take  with  him  his  bride,  Catherine  Howard,  and  a  many  fitted 
to  his  rank.  The  state-rooms  of  the  palace  were  freshly 
adorned,  and  painters  wrought  in  proper  colours  on  the  walls 
the  arms  of  the  royal  pair  and  those  of  Brotherton  and  other 
sons  of  ancient  kings.  All  these  preparations  must  have 
been  made  at  Longland's  order  by  his  stewards  and  servants, 
for  the  bishop  himself  was  with  the  king. 

At  length,  on  a  Tuesday  morning  early  in  August,  the  news 
spread  through  the  city  that  the  king  had  reached  Temple 
Bruer  for  dinner,  and  so  was  but  seven  miles  away.  The 
townsfolk  made  their  last  preparations,  and  with  them  joined 
the  gentry  of  the  shire,  who  furnished  the  guard  of  honour 
that  lined  the  streets  where  the  king  should  pass.  At  the 
farthest  end  of  the  liberty  of  the  city  tents  were  pitched  for 
the  king,  the  queen,  and  for  her  ladies,  and  here,  as  one  of 
the  heralds  has  told  us,  they  "  dyd  shyfte  theyre  apparrell, 
for  his  Grace  was  apparelleyd  before  he  cam  to  hys  tent  in 
Greene  veluet,  and  the  quene  in  Crymesyn  veluet,  and  then  the 
kinge  shyfted  hym  into  clothe  of  golde,  and  the  quene  into 
clothe  of  sylver."      The  Lady  Mary  was  there,  but  her  dress 


THE   OLD    PALACE   OF   LINCOLN     185 

is  not  recorded,  and  we  can  imagine  that  it  was  with  rather 
a  bad  grace  that  she  rode  through  the  city  where  one  of  the 
last  efforts  had  been  made  to  maintain  that  state  of  affairs 
which  she  had  so  much  to  heart.  Brave  indeed  must  have 
been  the  sight  as  "  aftre  that  everye  thynge  was  sett  in  good 
ordre,"  and  the  king  had  received  deputations  from  city  and 
chapter,  the  train  wound  its  way  through  the  city  and  up 
"  the  height."  First  of  all  went  the  heralds  in  their  tabards 
of  many  colours,  then  the  gentlemen  and  pensioners  with 
the  nobles,  including  the  ambassador  of  France  ready  to 
criticize  and  decry.  "  My  Lorde  Hastinges  "  bore  the  sword 
before  the  king  who,  on  a  great  charger,  was  impressive  in 
spite  of  his  enormous  bulk,  and  was  this  time  very  ready  to  be 
pleased.  Behind  him  six  children  of  honour,  dressed  in 
cloth  of  gold  and  crimson  velvet,  were  followed  by  the 
queen's  chamberlain.  Then  came  the  queen,  hardly  yet 
used  to  royal  honours,  and  perhaps  conscious  of  the 
burden  of  the  day.  Her  ladies  attended  her,  and  then 
rode  the  captain  of  the  guard,  with  some  sixty  or  eighty 
bowmen  with  bows  drawn.  Decorations  were  every- 
where ;  Lincoln  can  never  have  shown  more  colour,  more 
movement,  or  more  variety  than  on  that  summer  day  when 
Henry  VHL  brought  there  his  queen.  We  do  not  know 
what  road  was  followed,  but  in  any  case  the  sharpness  of  the 
ascent  must  have  made  the  progress  slow.  Perhaps  "  the 
Steep  "  was  the  way  they  took ;  at  any  rate,  while  all 
the  bells  of  the  city  rang,  and  the  townsfolk  and  country- 
men shouted  their  huzza,  the  procession  passed  beneath  the 
Chequer  Gate,  and  halted  at  the  west  door  of  the  minster, 
while  the  mayor  and  his  brethren  stood  aside.  At  the  great 
door  stood  the  bishop  with  the  cross  and  choir  "  gyving 
attendance."     Where  the  king  was  to  alight  a  carpet  had 


i86      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL   PALACES 

been  spread  and  set  with  stools  with  "  quyssheons  "  of  cloth 
of  gold — one  for  the  king  whereon  a  crucifix  was  laid,  and 
another  for  the  queen's  grace.  "  After  his  Grace  was  kneeled 
downe,  the  bishop  in  his  mitre  came  forth  of  the  church  and 
gave  the  crucifix  to  the  king  to  kiss,  and  then  to  the  queen, 
and  then  censed  them  and  offered  them  blessed  water."  In 
solemn  wise  king  and  queen  advanced  beneath  a  canopy, 
while  the  choir  sang  the  canticle  Summa  Tvinitate ;  down 
the  aisle  through  the  screen  to  the  high  altar  they  went,  and 
there  before  the  Sacrament  the  free-will  offering  was  made. 
On  such  a  high  occasion  St.  Hugh  put  in  his  claim,  and  to 
the  head  and  to  the  shrine  the  procession  moved,  and  then 
on  to  the  palace  "  cum  honore,"  or  as  the  herald  puts  it :  "  And 
aftre  this  don,  his  Grace  went  strayght  to  his  lodgings,  and 
in  lyke  case  all  the  trayne  for  that  nigght." 

Where  the  train  was  bestowed  is  indeed  a  problem.  Our 
knowledge  of  the  palace  is  almost  entirely  confined  to  the 
rooms  of  ceremony,  or,  at  any  rate,  to  those  more  immediately 
used  by  the  bishop  and  his  personal  servants.  The  list  of 
them  raises  some  wonder  as  to  how  the  king,  the  queen,  and 
the  bishop  could  have  been  lodged  there  with  any  comfort 
even  for  one  night,  far  less  for  several  days.  The  queen,  we 
know,  was  lodged  in  one  of  the  chambers  of  state,  close  by 
which  a  little  stairway  led  up  to  the  room  of  Jane  Lady 
Rochford,  her  lady-in-waiting — that  indiscreet  lady  who  was 
not  merely  a  cousin  of  Catherine  Howard,  but  had  been  kin 
to  Anne  Boleyn.  Most  unhappily  in  the  royal  train  was 
Thomas  Culpepper,  gentleman  of  the  king's  privy  chamber 
and  cousin — afterwards  some  said  lover — of  the  queen.  Both 
queen  and  esquire  were  Lincolnshire  folk,  and  it  must  have 
been  strange  for  both  to  come  back  in  such  magnificence  to  a 
country  where  she  had  been  so  neglected  as  a  child,  and  he 


THE   OLD   PALACE    OF   LINCOLN     187 

had  been  one  of  her  few  early  friends.  It  may  have  been 
with  something  of  this  in  her  mind  that  one  night  Catherine 
went  up  to  Lady  Rochford's  room,  taking  with  her  the  two 
women,  Margot,  and  Catherine  Tylney.  The  women  were 
soon  dismissed,  and  Catherine  went  to  bed,  though  Margot, 
either  uneasy  or  more  in  the  queen's  confidence,  went  up 
again  "  eftsoons."  The  door  to  the  "  litle  payr  of  stayres  by 
the  quenes  chamber  "  was  not  the  only  entrance  to  Lady 
Rochford's  room,  for  there  was  also  a  back  stair  with  a  door 
below  leading  into  the  open  air.  Up  this  stair  Lady  Roch- 
ford  admitted  Culpepper  for  an  interview  with  the  queen. 
What  really  passed  will  never  be  known,  though  Culpepper 
confessed  that  he  told  Catherine  of  his  love  ;  Lady  Rochford 
had  retired  to  the  other  end  of  the  room  and  afterwards 
declared  that  she  had  slept.  Margot  must  have  known 
something  of  what  passed,  for  it  was  two  o'clock  when  she 
went  to  bed,  and  answered  a  yawning  companion's  exclama- 
tion of"  Jhesus,  is  not  the  quene  abedde  yet  ?  "  with  a  short, 
tired  "  Yes,  even  nowe."  But  if  this  first  meeting  here  was 
indiscreet,  still  more  so  was  the  second.  Catherine  Tylney 
was  again  in  attendance,  but  stayed  with  Lady  Rochford's 
woman  in  a  little  alcove  outside  while  the  queen  was  in  her 
kinswoman's  chamber.  It  grew  late ;  Culpepper  did  not 
come.  As  the  queen  and  her  lady  waited  by  the  back  door 
the  watch  came  past  with  his  torch,  and  seeing  the  door 
unfastened  down  below,  locked  it  and  passed  on.  We  can 
imagine  the  consternation  of  the  women,  standing  there  with 
every  nerve  tense  and  the  knowledge  of  Queen  Anne's  fate 
ever  before  their  eyes.  They  had  not  very  long  to  wait ; 
Culpepper  and  his  servant  found  the  door,  and  found  it 
locked.  To  have  picked  a  heavy  lock  of  that  day  without 
attracting  attention  argues  some  skill,  and    tends  to    show 


i88      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL   PALACES 

that  the  stairway  opened  on  a  quiet  inner  court  where  few 
would  pass.  Culpepper  once  safely  upstairs,  Lady  Rochford 
on  her  own  showing,  went  fast  asleep,  and  only  woke  when 
the  queen  called  her  to  answer  one  of  her  women  who 
knocked  at  the  door. 

Whatever  the  truth  in  regard  to  these  interviews — and 
their  indiscretion  must  be  admitted — such  were  the  intrigues 
round  the  queen  that  they  were  bound  to  be  interpreted  in 
the  worst  possible  light.  The  secret  meetings  at  Lincoln 
were  not  the  only  ones,  and  formed  only  part  of  the  indict- 
ment against  Thomas  Culpepper,  under  which,  in  November 
of  that  same  year,  he  was  convicted  of  treason  and  sentenced 
to  be  hanged,  drawn  and  quartered ;  a  few  days  later 
Catherine  Howard  met  her  fate  at  the  block. 

The  junketings  that  marked  the  royal  visit  to  Lincoln 
must  have  been  among  the  last  festivities  at  the  palace. 
Longland  died  at  Woburn  on  May  7,  1547 ;  his  heart  was 
brought  to  Lincoln  and  buried  before  the  high  altar  of  his 
cathedral.  Over  it  was  built  a  "  fair  tomb  "  of  marble,  with 
the  legend,  punning  on  his  name  :  "  Longa  terra  mansura  eius ; 
Dominus  dedit."  Longland  had  shown  unusual  strength  of 
character  in  his  relations  with  the  Crown,  but  his  successor, 
Henry  Holbeach,  or  Raundes,  as  he  has  been  called,  was  a 
weak  man  set  in  times  of  peculiar  difficulty.  The  see  of 
Lincoln  was  richly  endowed,  so  that  its  bishops  could  well 
keep  their  state  as  princes  of  the  Church.  To  Henry  VIII. 
this  seemed  fitting  ;  his  theory  of  the  relations  of  Church  and 
State  postulated  magnificence  in  the  rulers  of  the  Church  of 
which  he  was  supreme  head  upon  earth.  The  idea  had  no 
meaning  for  his  son's  ministers,  who  saw  in  the  estates  of 
the  bishops  still  unsurrendered — and  grabable — ecclesiastical 
land.     In  pursuance    of   this    notion    the    Crown,   in   1549, 


THE    OLD    PALACE    OF   LINCOLN     189 

demanded  the  surrender  of  the  manors  and  lands  held  by  the 
see.  Holbeach  was  driven  into  a  corner,  and  finally  complied, 
receiving  in  "  exchange  "  various  livings  and  impropriations 
v^hich  brought  but  little  revenue,  and  for  that  reason  were 
abandoned  by  the  Crown.  Buckden,  Nettleham,  and  a  few 
acres  were  indeed  spared,  but  proved  rather  a  burden  than  a 
blessing,  as  the  expenses  of  maintaining  them  were  great. 
Of  necessity  some  economies  must  be  made,  and  to  Holbeach 
and  his  successors  the  simplest  plan  seemed  to  be  the 
abandonment  of  the  palace  at  Lincoln  and  of  Buckden  in 
favour  of  the  simpler  grange  at  Nettleham,  but  a  few  miles 
from  the  city.  Bleak  and  exposed  to  the  full  force  of  the 
weather,  the  palace  was  rarely  repaired  and  still  more  rarely 
visited ;  that  its  beauty  survived  the  next  sixty  years  of 
neglect  is  at  once  a  marvel  and  a  mystery. 

In  1621  Bishop  Monteigne,  translated  to  York,  was  suc- 
ceeded by  John  Williams  who  was  at  once  a  scholar  and  a 
man  of  much  administrative  energy.  He  made  himself 
immediately  popular,  so  that  even  the  bitter  critic  of  "  Three 
Looks  over  Lincoln"  was  bound  to  confess  that  he  "carried 
himselfe  so  affably  and  discreetly  unto  all,  that  he  had  the 
publike  applause  of  all  people,"  and  this  in  spite  of  Visitation 
Articles,  which  seemed  to  many  "  not  onely  gross  absurdities, 
but  likewise  a  meere  confirming  of  Canterburies  former 
opinions." 

With  characteristic  decision  Williams  began  to  reorganize 
the  episcopal  estates,  and  one  of  his  reforms  was  the 
abandonment  of  Nettleham.  His  first  step  was  to  sue  the 
executor  of  Monteigne  for  dilapidations ;  the  house  had 
not  been  used  by  the  bishops  for  more  than  eighty  years,  and 
the  greater  part  of  it  had  already  fallen.  The  executor 
complained  that  to  repair  it  would  absorb  the  whole  of  the 


igo      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

late  archbishop's  estate,  and  petitioned  the  king  to  order  its 
demoHtion.  The  question  was  referred  to  Bishop  Neile  of 
Winchester,  who  had  been  translated  to  that  see  from 
Lincoln,  and  to  Bishop  Williams  himself.  The  two  prelates 
reported  in  favour  of  destruction,  adding  that  they  could  not 
conceive  in  what  kind  the  house  at  Nettleham  had  ever  been 
useful,  seeing  that  it  was  so  near  Lincoln  and  had  so  little 
demesne  land  attached. 

It  was,  indeed,  one  of  Williams's  most  cherished  hopes 
that  the  palace  at  Lincoln  might  become  as  much  a  seat  of 
his  successors  as  Buckden  had  hitherto  been.  The  neglect 
since  the  time  of  Bishop  Neile  had  been  lamentable,  and  in 
Racket's  quaint  phrasing,  "  it  did  seem  irreparable  in  the 
Delapidations,  and  workmen  did  ask  so  much,  as  the  Neigh- 
bours of  the  Close  did  think  it  would  deter  the  Master  of  it." 
The  economies  in  regard  to  Nettleham  and  his  own  private 
fortune  put  Williams  in  a  position  to  carry  out  the  work  of 
repair,  and  in  three  years'  time  the  palace  was  once  more  not 
only  habitable  but  beautiful.  Williams  appears  to  have 
spent  some  time  here,  and  he  always  took  a  deep  interest  in 
the  affairs  of  the  city.  While  promoting  a  scheme  for  the 
assistance  of  the  poor  he  tried  also  to  raise  the  level  of 
scholarship  in  the  diocese,  "  and  because,"  his  biographer 
writes, "  he  found  a  decay  of  Learning  in  those  remote  Parts, 
for  want  of  good  Books,  he  designed  it  among  his  good 
Deeds  to  provide  a  Remedy,  another  Store-house  for  Authors 
of  all  Arts  and  Sciences."  There  was  probably  a  small 
library  at  the  palace  already,  for  in  1639  some  books  which 
seem  to  have  been  given  to  the  cathedral  by  James  I.,  were 
kept  there,  and  were  in  that  year  ordered  to  be  removed  to 
the  old  library  of  the  cathedral,  probably  to  separate  them 
from  the  bishop's  new  books.     These  he  obtained  by  the 


cin\  Williams,  Archblshop  ck  NOkk. 

From  a  print  in  the  British  Museum. 


THE    OLD   PALACE   OF   LINCOLN     igi 

purchase  of  the  library  of  Dr.  Day,   Rector  of  St.  Faith's, 

London,   who   had   been  well  supplied  with  books  by  the 

Stationers'  Company,  Stationers'   Hall  being  in  his  parish. 

The  books  were  brought  to  Lincoln,  and  stored  until  the  new 

library  should  be  built. 

It  is  not  possible  now  to  determine  where  this  "  plasket  or 

coffer  to  put  in  the  jewels  of  the  Muses  "  was  designed  to 

stand — possibly  it  was  to  have  been  built  westward  of  the 

great  hall,  and  in  continuation  of  its  northern  wall,  in  what 

was  then  the  upper  court,  and  where  the  carriage-drive  now 

runs.     Racket  speaks  of  the  place  as  "  a  yard,"  and  says  that 

timber  was  already  hewn  and  disposed  there  for  building  "  a 

capacious  Room."     The  work  had  reached  this  stage  when 

Williams   became  involved  in  a  Star  Chamber  prosecution 

which  resulted  in  his  imprisonment  in  1637.     Herrick  had 

prophesied  his   release  by  Charles  I.,  comparing   it  to  the 

time  when — 

"That  earthquake  shook  the  house,  and  gave  the  stout 
Apostles  way  unshackled  to  go  out  "  ; 

but  he  had  hardly  foreseen  the  extent  of  the  convulsion.  In 
1642  Charles  was  at  Lincoln,  trying  to  rouse  the  loyalty  of 
the  country  gentlemen  ;  in  the  same  year  Williams  was 
translated  to  the  archiepiscopal  see  of  York,  and  was  suc- 
ceeded at  Lincoln  by  Thomas  Winniffe,  who  died  in  the  very 
year  of  the  Restoration,  1660. 

Lincoln  remained  in  the  possession  of  the  Royalist  forces 
until  1644.  A  newsletter  entitled,  "  A  True  Relation  of  the 
Taking  of  the  City,  Minster,  and  Castle  of  Lincoln,"  describes 
how,  "  on  Friday  last.  May  3,  my  lord  of  Manchester  sat 
down  before  Lincolne.  And  after  some  small  resistance  was 
master  of  the  lower  part  of  the  City.  The  enemy  all  flying 
from  their  outworks,  and  betaking  themselves  to  their  upper 


192      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

works,  to  the  Minster,  and  to  the  Castle,  which  they  con- 
ceived to  be  impregnable." 

The  whole  of  the  upper  part  of  the  city  was  in  a  state  of 
siege,  for  the  gates  of  the  close  were  barred,  rendering  it 
difficult  to  mass  troops  before  the  eastern,  and  principal 
gate  of  the  castle.  On  Saturday,  May  4,  much  rain  fell, 
making  attack  impossible.  A  storming  party  tried  to  carry 
the  position  that  night,  but  the  ground  was  too  slippery, 
"  the  mount  whereon  the  castle  stood  being  nere  as  steep  as 
the  eaves  of  a  house."  On  the  following  day  news  came 
that  Colonel  Goringe  was  bringing  relief  to  the  castle,  and 
Cromwell,  then  a  lieutenant-general,  was  despatched  with  a 
force  to  intercept  him.  Meanwhile  the  upper  city  was  being 
badly  mauled  on  all  sides.  "A  fair  tenement,"  standing 
between  the  East  Gate  and  Winnowsty  Lane  was  ruined,  as 
were  two  houses  in  North  Gate,  as  well  as  others.  The 
churches  suffered  severely,  eight  being  more  or  less  des- 
troyed. Finally  the  castle  was  taken  by  storm  in,  it  is  said, 
half  an  hour,  and  at  least  fifty  of  its  defenders  were 
slaughtered  in  the  bailey.  The  Close  was,  however,  still 
intact.  The  Chequer  Gate  rushed,  the  soldiers  at  once 
attacked  the  subdeanery  and  precentory,  which  stood  just 
within,  and  wrought  such  ruin  that  in  the  surveys  of  1647 — 51 
both  houses  are  described  as  having  all  the  habitable  part 
pulled  down  and  taken  away  by  the  soldiers.  These  houses, 
perhaps,  drew  the  attack  from  the  bishop's  palace,  which 
lay  immediately  to  their  east ;  but  it  is  remarkable  that  the 
Vicars'  Court,  on  the  other  side  of  the  palace,  was  also 
injured,  some  of  the  houses  forming  "its  fair  quadrangle" 
being  destroyed.  In  fine,  "  all  the  pillage  of  the  upper  town 
(which  was  taken  by  storming)  was  given  to  the  soldiers." 

That  the  palace  did,  however,  escape  with  little  hurt  was 


THE    OLD    PALACE    OF   LINCOLN     193 

pointed  out  by  Mr.  J.  G.  Williams,  in  "  Lincolnshire  Notes 
and  Queries,"  and  seems  certain  from  the  account  of  the 
building  given  by  the  surveyors  shortly  afterwards.  It  seems 
also  to  have  been  partly  respected  by  the  governor  of  the 
castle,  Captain  Hotham.  In  his  diligence  in  furnishing  the 
Parliamentary  officers  with  bullets  this  officer  stripped  the 
lead  from  nearly  all  the  churches  of  the  city,  as  well  as  from, 
the  roof  of  the  bishop's  kitchen,  though  he  left  that  on  the 
hall  in  its  place.  Most  of  the  lead  pipes  in  the  palace  were  also 
removed  by  one  Emas,  an  alderman,  though  he  "cold  show 
noe  warrant  for  his  soe  doinge."  So  great  was  the  annoy- 
ance caused  by  this  seizure  of  lead  that  John  Broxholme,  one 
of  the  members  for  the  city,  brought  it  before  the  notice  of 
the  House  of  Commons,  who  accordingly  commanded  that 
none  was  to  be  "  meddled  with  or  pulled  down  or  taken 
away  upon  any  pretence  whatever."  The  order  was  trans- 
mitted to  the  Earl  of  Manchester,  and  was  apparently 
effective,  for  no  further  complaint  was  made. 

By  an  order  of  the  House  of  Commons  the  palace,  with 
the  rest  of  the  episcopal  estates,  was  vested  in  trustees,  who, 
in  1647 — 51,  made  the  survey  so  often  mentioned.  They 
valued  the  ground,  materials,  and  utilances  of  the  palace  at 
^^1,587  I2S.  id.,  and  described  it  as  "  a  very  stronge  build- 
inge  and  in  good  repaire."  Accordingly,  when  an  effort 
was  made  to  refortify  Lincoln  Castle,  in  1643,  the  governor 
was  told  to  remove  the  prisoners  to  safe  keeping  in  the 
palace,  where  the  ancient  kitchens  probably  suggested 
themselves  as  suitable  dungeons. 

The  very  strength  of  the  palace  proved  its  ruin.  By  1648 
Lincolnshire  was  in  the  hands  of  the  Parliamentary  forces, 
and  was  under  the  command  of  Colonel  Rossiter,  who  was 
stationed  at  Belvoir,  a  position  chosen  for  its  strength  and 

E.E.P.  O 


194      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL   PALACES 

accessibility.  Lincoln  Castle  it  was  hopeless  to  fortify,  and 
the  city  was  left  in  the  command  of  a  draper,  one  Captain 
Bee,  with  a  force  of  about  a  hundred  men  at  his  command. 
On  June  i  the  Royalists  of  Southern  Yorkshire  suddenly 
rose  in  support  of  the  Scotch  invasion  of  the  northern 
counties,  and  took  Pontefract,  which  became  the  centre  of 
raids  in  the  surrounding  county.  These  excursions  were 
harassing  rather  than  dangerous  ;  but  nevertheless  the  Parlia- 
mentary Committee  for  Safety  called  a  meeting  at  Lincoln, 
at  which  it  was  resolved  to  raise  a  troop  of  horse  for  the 
defence  of  Belvoir  and  Tattershall  Castles,  the  only  positions 
either  likely  to  be  attacked  or  strong  enough  for  defence. 

The  action  was  justified  in  the  middle  of  June,  when  "  the 
Pomfreters,"  as  they  were  called,  seized  the  Isle  of  Axholme. 
The  consternation  in  the  city  was  great  when  on  Friday, 
June  30,  news  came  that  400  horse  dragoons  and  200 
musketeers  had  crossed  the  Trent  at  Gainsborough  Ferry 
and  were  marching  on  Lincoln.  The  crossing  was  made  at 
nine  o'clock,  and  in  two  hours  the  news  had  reached  the  town. 
Captain  Bee  was  in  a  desperate  position,  with  no  arms,  but 
a  hundred  men,  and  the  castle  untenable.  The  minster  and 
the  palace  were  the  only  possible  places  of  defence,  and  the 
minster  was  open  to  attack  on  all  sides,  and  was  too  vast  to 
be  held  by  so  small  a  force.  The  palace,  on  the  other  hand, 
could  only  be  attacked  with  ease  by  a  body  of  horse  from 
the  east,  where  a  narrow  gateway  opened  on  to  the  Close. 
On  the  rest  of  its  eastern  side  it  was  defended  by  the  Vicars' 
Court  and  the  remains  of  the  old  Roman  wall  ;  on  the 
north  the  Close  wall  hemmed  it  in,  while  the  west  side  was 
thickly  built  upon,  and  the  escarpment  of  the  hill  was  an 
effectual  barrier  against  cavalry  on  the  south.  Captain 
Bee    accordingly   retired   to   the   palace,    taking   with   him 


THE    OLD    PALACE    OF   LINCOLN     195 

what  arms  he  could   lay  hands   upon,  the  city  funds,  and 
other  valuables. 

As  for  the  Royalist  forces,  according  to  the  newsletter, 
"  about  twelve  or  one  o'clock  they  were  come  up  to  Lincolne, 
where  they  found  the  City  very  unready  to  oppose  them,  as 
not  expecting  their  company  so  soon."  They  seem  to  have 
met  with  little  opposition,  and  at  once  took  possession  of  the 
minster,  which  they  recognized  would  be  untenable  *'  if  not 
well  and  speedily  manned."  They  then  turned  their  atten- 
tion to  the  palace.  It  seems  probable  that  Captain  Bee  had 
ensconced  himself  in  the  hall,  for  it  was  this  which  suffered 
most  severely  in  the  short  siege.  The  gateway  was  probably 
soon  taken ;  and  Mr.  Williams  has  suggested  that  it  was  in 
the  rush  that  "  one  Mr.  Smith,  belonging  to  the  Sequestra- 
tion "  was  killed.  The  chapel  wing  appears  to  have  been 
captured  without  much  trouble,  for  it  was  little  damaged. 
The  great  hall  met  with  a  different  fate.  Racket,  when 
speaking  of  the  timber  provided  for  Williams's  projected 
library,  says  that  it  was  used  by  the  soldiers  for  making 
fortifications ;  and  it  seems  reasonable  to  suppose  that 
Captain  Bee  formed  from  these  planks  his  barricade.  This 
would  also  explain  the  fact  that  after  a  siege  of  three  hours 
the  cavaliers  succeeded  in  setting  fire  to  the  palace.  The 
roof  of  the  hall  seems  to  have  been  burnt,  and  havoc  was 
even  done  to  the  Alnwick  Tower,  so  that,  until  a  few  years 
ago,  it  still  bore  marks  by  the  window  of  the  second  storey 
showing  that  the  walls  had  once  been  red  hot.  Surrender 
seemed  now  the  only  possible  means  of  escape.  That 
there  was  possibly  an  entrance  underground  beneath  the 
Vicars'  Court  was  probably  unknown  to  Captain  Bee,  and 
remained  forgotten  until  rediscovered  on  building  the  new 
palace  in  1888 ;  or  even  if  the  passage  were  known  it  seems 

O   2 


ige      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL   PALACES 

to  have  been  in  the  hands  of  the  cavaHers.  Captain  Bee 
offered  to  surrender  on  condition  that,  among  other  terms, 
his  person  and  estate  should  receive  no  hurt.  These  terms 
were  not  respected,  and  the  newsletter  relates  how  the 
Royalists  took  "  Alderman  Emas,  the  mayor  of  the  city, 
Alderman  Dowse,  Captain  Bee,  and  all  the  officers  and 
souldiers,  with  other  prisoners."  The  soldiers  wrecked  and 
partly  burnt  the  palace,  and  '*  valiantly  plundered  the  well- 
affected"  Puritans,  singling  out  especially  the  house  of 
Captain  Pert,  a  well-known  Parliamentary  officer  then 
serving  in  Northumberland. 

From  the  first  it  had  been  anticipated  that  the  cavaliers 
could  not  remain  at  Lincoln ;  they  had  neither  a  sufficiency 
of  men  or  provisions,  and  now  they  had  destroyed  the  only 
remaining  position  capable  of  defence.  In  this  destruction 
they  had  probably  fulfilled  part  of  their  purpose,  and  they 
had  also  struck  a  blow  at  the  prestige  of  the  Parliamentary 
force  in  the  county  as  well  as  provided  themselves  with  a 
bountiful  supply  of  provisions  and  plunder,  including  Captain 
Bee's  stock  of  drapery,  with  which  they  retired  to 
Gainsborough  on  Saturday  morning. 

But  if  they  had  been  successful,  their  action  had  been 
very  disastrous  to  the  palace.  A  year  before  the  commis- 
sioners had  declared  that  the  hall  "  of  y'  selffe  (by  dividinge 
of  y')  might  make  a  dwelling-house  with  all  convenient 
rooms  for  use  "  ;  now  the  upper  storey  had  disappeared,  and 
the  very  walls  of  the  lower  hall  were  reduced  to  half  their 
height.  The  chapel  wing  was,  however,  little  the  worse. 
The  commissioners  were  probably  referring  to  this  half  of 
the  building  and  the  hall  when  they  pointed  out  that  the 
palace  would  "  serve  (being  divided  into  two  equall  parts) 
for  two  families  of  honnor,"  and  valued  it  for  this  purpose 


THE    OLD    PALACE    OF   LINCOLN     197 

at  j^2,ooo.  It  is  uncertain  at  what  date  the  palace  passed 
into  the  hands  of  James  Berry,  one  of  Cromwell's  major- 
generals,  but  he  was  certainly  living  there  in  1655.  In  his 
hands  considerable  alterations  were  made  to  the  ruins.  The 
chapel  wing  was  converted  into  a  house,  and  the  chapel 
itself  divided  into  two  storeys  by  placing  a  floor  half  way  up 
its  walls.  A  small  chamber  with  sharply  pitched  roof  and 
dormer  windows  was  built  on  the  top  of  the  Alnwick  Tower, 
which  must  have  been  partly  restored  ;  and  dormer  windows 
also  lighted  chambers  made  in  the  roof  of  the  chapel  wing. 
As  a  busy  soldier  Berry  needed  large  stables,  and  these  he 
built  all  along  the  western  side  of  the  great  hall,  quite 
enclosing  the  remains  of  Alnwick's  bow  window.  The  hall 
itself  was  apparently  converted  into  a  stable-yard.  Berry 
was  not  without  some  idea  of  his  own  dignity  and  impor- 
tance. Originally  a  clerk  in  ironworks  in  the  west  of 
England,  he  had  lived  with  Richard  Baxter  who  called  him 
his  "old  bosom  friend."  Later  he  had  taken  service  under 
Cromwell,  and  procured  Baxter's  nomination  as  chaplain  to 
his  troop ;  the  friendship  of  the  two  men,  however,  waned, 
and  Baxter  complained  that  Berry  came  to  regard  the  old 
Puritan  ministers  as  dull,  self-conceited  men.  But  although 
he  regretted  Berry's  change  of  views  he  admitted  his 
sincerity,  saying,  that  "  all  this  was  promoted  by  the  mis- 
understanding of  Providence,  while  he  only  thought  that 
God,  by  their  victories,  had  so  called  them  to  look  after  the 
government  of  the  land,  and  so  entrusted  them  with  the 
welfare  of  all  his  people  here,  that  they  were  responsible 
for  it,  and  might  not  in  conscience  stand  still  while  anything 
was  done  that  they  thought  was  against  the  interest  which 
they  judged  to  be  the  interest  of  the  people  of  God."  It 
was  natural  that  with  such  a  character  and  with  a  certain 


igS      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

amount  of  military  skill  Berry  should  become  a  favourite 
with  Cromwell,  to  whom  he  was  acting  as  his  captain- 
lieutenant,  when  in  1643  he  followed  Charles  Cavendish  into 
a  morass  and  slew  him  at  the  battle  of  Gainsborough.  He 
was  one  of  the  spokesmen  for  the  army  in  its  dispute  with 
Parliament  in  1647,  and  was  chosen  president  of  the  Council 
of  Adjutators.  In  1655  he  and  Major-General  Whalley  were 
appointed  by  the  Council  of  State  as  commissioners  to  settle 
the  disputes  which  had  arisen  between  the  Mayor  of  Lincoln 
and  "  well-affected  "  aldermen  and  the  other  town  councillors, 
some  of  whom  were  Royalists. 

In  this  year  also  he  was  involved  in  a  dispute  which 
illustrates  the  temper  of  the  new  owner  of  the  palace.  The 
minster  had  been  much  damaged  in  the  various  sieges  of  the 
last  few  years,  and  the  glass  of  its  windows  had  suffered. 
It  was  still  used  as  a  place  of  worship,  one  Reyner  being 
minister.  He  and  his  congregation  felt  the  cold  as  it  swept 
in  through  the  windows  of  the  nave  while  they  listened  to  or 
gave  the  lengthy  sermons  of  the  period,  and  they  accordingly 
petitioned  the  Parliamentary  Committee  for  permission  to 
move  the  pulpit  eastward  and  out  of  the  draught.  Unfor- 
tunately in  doing  this  they  blocked  up  access  to  the  bishop's 
throne.  Now  Berry  maintained  that  in  purchasing  the 
palace  "with  appurtenances"  he  purchased  the  right  to  sit 
in  the  throne.  He  was,  perhaps,  not  very  popular,  for  his 
claim  was  resisted.  An  influential  man,  he  had  friends  on 
the  Council  of  State,  and  to  these  he  applied  :  President 
Henry  Lawrence  wrote  to  the  Committee  ordering  them  to 
see  that  Berry's  just  demand  was  satisfied. 

In  this  same  year  Berry  was  employed  in  suppressing  the 
Royalist  rising  in  Nottinghamshire,  and  a  few  months  later 
he  was  made  major-general  for   Herefordshire,  Shropshire, 


THE   OLD    PALACE   OF   LINCOLN     199 

and  Wales,  where  he  was  very  unpopular  among  the  gentry, 
who,  as  Baxter  says,  "  had  known  his  inferiority "  in  his 
youth.  He  was  now  at  the  height  of  his  power,  and  was 
nominated  by  Cromwell  as  one  of  his  House  of  Peers  ;  but 
on  his  leader's  death  Berry  was  foremost  among  those  who 
procured  Richard  Cromwell's  downfall.  As  a  member  of  the 
Committee  of  Safety  constituted  by  the  army  in  1659,  his 
engagement  to  live  peaceably  was  especially  required  at  the 
Restoration,  and  being  suspected  by  General  Monk  he  was 
imprisoned  in  Scarborough  Castle.  He  was  still  confined 
there  in  1663,  when  his  wife  Mary  petitioned  the  king  for  the 
release  of  her  husband,  "  an  aged  and  peaceable  man,"  or  at 
least  "  for  liberty  of  the  castle  and  free  access  for  herself  and 
children  to  him,"  In  September  of  the  same  year  Berry 
was  the  only  prisoner  in  the  castle,  though  he  had  more 
freedom.  His  ultimate  fate  is  uncertain,  Baxter  declared  that 
he  was  released  and  became  a  gardener  ;  Professor  Firth,  in 
the  "  Dictionary  of  National  Biography,"  thought  that  he 
remained  a  prisoner  until  his  death ;  while  Mr.  Clephan,  in 
his  "  Remembrance  of  the  Rev.  C.  Berry,"  maintained  that 
he  was  the  Lieutenant-Colonel  Berry  who  in  1689  was 
second  in  command  at  Newton  Butler. 

The  palace  stood,  in  1660,  a  desolate  ruin  among  the  trees 
on  the  hillside,  dropping  slowly  to  decay.  Even  the  chapel 
wing  was  deserted,  for  with  the  Restoration  Colonel  Berry's 
wife  had  lost  her  home,  and  had  gone  north  to  be  near  her 
husband's  prison.  The  palace  was  restored  to  the  see,  but 
Bishop  Sanderson  was  dying,  and  nothing  was  done  for  a 
time  ;  his  successor,  Benjamin  Laney,  was  translated  to  Ely 
in  1667,  having  been  Bishop  of  Lincoln  for  too  short  a  time 
to  leave  any  permanent  trace  on  his  diocese. 

In  September,  1667,  William  Fuller  was  elected  to   the 


200      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

vacant  bishopric.  An  ardent  Royalist,  he  had  suffered 
severely  in  the  Civil  War,  and  had  maintained  himself  by 
keeping  a  school  at  Twickenham.  On  the  Restoration  he 
was  given  the  deanery  of  St.  Patrick's,  Dublin,  and  restored 
that  cathedral.  Shortly  afterwards  he  was  made  Bishop  of 
Limerick,  and  Pepys,  a  great  friend  of  his,  described  him  as 
"  one  of  the  comeliest  and  most  becoming  prelates  in  all 
respects  that  ever  I  saw  in  my  life."  Fuller's  promotion  to 
Lincoln  was  a  great  joy  to  the  diarist. 

But  though  Fuller,  when  holding  his  Irish  preferments, 
had  spent  the  greater  part  of  his  time  in  England  he  held 
strong  views  as  to  the  duty  of  a  bishop,  and  was  determined 
to  have  a  house  at  Lincoln  that  he  might  be  in  the  midst  of 
his  diocese.  It  was  evident  that  no  attempt  could  be  made 
to  restore  the  palace,  and  the  dwelling  which  Berry  had 
formed  from  the  chapel  was  neither  large  enough  nor  con- 
venient for  a  bishop's  dwelling.  In  the  Close,  however,  the 
dean  and  chapter  owned  a  house,  of  which  the  tenant.  Sir 
Adrian  Scrope,  had  recently  died.  The  situation  of  the 
house — now  Nos.  4  and  5,  Pottergate — was  pleasant,  with 
its  view  of  the  cathedral  from  the  front  and  the  green  of  the 
chancellor's  orchard  and  gardens  behind ;  and,  moreover, 
the  house  was  a  substantial  building  suited  to  a  person  of 
quality.  Bishop  Fuller  was  enthroned  by  proxy  on  Sep- 
tember 30,  1667,  but  came  to  Lincoln  shortly  afterwards, 
and  seems,  as  Canon  Venables  showed  in  "  Lincolnshire 
Notes  and  Queries,"  to  have  chosen  this  house  as  the  most 
convenient  for  his  purpose.  The  executors  or  assignees  of 
Sir  Adrian  accordingly  sublet  it  to  him,  and  so  pleasant  did 
the  bishop  find  it  that  he  proposed  to  Dean  Honeywood 
that  he  should  become  the  tenant  in  fact.  Accordingly,  in 
February,  1668,  the  dean,  precentor,  and  chancellor  met  at 


THE   OLD   PALACE    OF   LINCOLN     201 

the  deanery  and  decreed  that — "  whereas  the  Bishop  of 
Lincolne's  house  in  Lincolne  was  in  y*  late  tymes  of  confusion 
pulled  downe  and  utterly  defaced,  whereby  his  lordship  is 
destitute  of  a  convenient  habitation  in  y*  County  of  Lincolne, 
the  dean  and  chapter,  considering  y^  great  benefitt  which 
would  accrewe  to  y^  church  and  city  and  whole  diocese  of 
Lincolne  by  the  presence  of  their  diocesan,  have  designed 
that  house  in  the  Close  lately  in  the  tenure  of  Sir  Adrian 
Scrope  or  his  assignees  to  be  reserved  for  the  onely  use  and 
dwelling  of  the  bishop  and  his  successors  on  such  reasonable 
terms  and  conditions  as  shall  be  agreed  upon  by  the  bishop 
and  dean  and  chapter  for  y'  tyme  being  when  it  shall  come 
into  their  hands,  and  that  therefore  the  lease  in  being  of 
that  house  shall  not  upon  any  terms  be  renewed,  but  suffered 
to  expire  " — they  would  lease  it  to  the  bishop.  Accordingly, 
when  the  lease  expired  in  1675,  the  house  was  assigned  to 
Bishop  Fuller  and  his  successors  in  the  see  for  the  term  of 
twenty-one  years  at  a  rent  of  £4,  which  was  annexed  to  the 
Minster  Fabric  Fund ;  a  stipulation  was  included  that  the 
lease  should  be  rendered  null  if  the  bishop  or  his  successors 
"granted,  alienated,  or  sold"  the  house,  thus  indicating  the 
genuine  desire  of  the  chapter  for  the  bishop's  residence  in 
Lincoln — a  state  of  affairs  very  different  to  that  noticeable  in 
the  fourteenth  century. 

On  April  22,  1675,  Bishop  Fuller  died,  and  with  him 
departed  all  desire  on  the  part  of  his  successors  to  live  at 
Lincoln  until  the  nineteenth  century  brought  with  it  new 
ideals  of  episcopal  duty.  Fuller's  successor  was  Thomas 
Barlow,  Provost  of  Queen's  College,  Oxford,  who  had  long 
determined  to  seize  the  next  vacant  see.  So  great  was  his 
haste  that  he  obtained  the  bishopric  on  the  very  day  of 
Fuller's  death,  and  on  April  23  was  despatched  the  co7ige 


202      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

d'elire  to  the  dean  and  chapter.  A  very  learned  man,  WiUis 
says  of  him  in  his  "  Survey  "  that  he  was  "  esteemed  a 
thorough-paced  Calvinist,  and  consequently  no  friend  to  his 
order ;  insomuch  that  while  he  sate  bishop  he  was  remark- 
able for  having  never  visited  any  part  of  his  diocese  in 
person,  or  been  ever  in  all  his  life  at  Lincoln."  In  this  last 
accusation,  however,  Willis  was  mistaken,  for  when  Dean 
Honeywood  wrote  to  him  in  the  hope  that  he  would  main- 
tain the  house  at  Lincoln,  Barlow  replied  that  "  he  had  seen 
and  loved  Lincoln,  and  thought  it  the  best  place  for  his 
abode,"  adding  that  "  he  must,  however,  for  some  reasons, 
reside  awhile  at  Buckden."  But  it  was  some  time  before  he 
even  went  to  Buckden,  for  on  May  29,  1675,  he  wrote  to  Sir 
Joseph  Williamson,  the  secretary  of  State,  saying,  that  as 
his  confirmation,  consecration,  fees,  first  fruits,  etc.,  would 
cost  him  ;^2,ooo  or  ^^1,500  before  he  received  a  penny  from 
his  bishopric  he  would  get  into  debt  unless  he  were  allowed 
to  stay  at  Queen's  until  the  following  Lady  Day.  Further, 
he  asked  that  he  "  might  have  the  benefit  of  his  sinecure  and 
archdeaconry  that  he  might  have  something  to  live  on  till 
the  revenue  came  in."  In  spite  of  remonstrances  from 
Halifax,  among  others,  and  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  a  house 
was  awaiting  him  at  Lincoln,  Barlow  refused  to  leave 
Buckden,  and  so  notorious  did  his  attitude  become  that  he 
was  universally  known  as  the  "  Bishop  of  Buckden." 

The  history  of  the  house  which  was  for  so  short  a  time 
the  episcopal  palace  may  be  briefly  summarized.  For  many 
years  the  dean  and  chapter  kept  it  vacant  in  the  somewhat 
forlorn  hope  that  Barlow  might  change  his  mind ;  finally, 
they  lost  patience,  and  on  September  4,  1686,  they  granted 
it  on  lease  to  William  Farmery  of  Thavies  Inn,  and  the 
brother-in-law  of  Bishop  Fuller.     He  sublet   the  house  to 


THE    OLD    PALACE   OF   LINCOLN     203 

Mr.  Dobell,  who  on  October  27,  1695,  found  it  sufficiently 
large  and  convenient  for  the  entertainment  of  William  IIL, 
then  on  his  way  from  Bolton  to  Welbeck ;  indeed,  he  gave  a 
large  banquet  there,  and  in  all  spent,  it  is  said,  ;^500  on  the 
evening's  amusement.  Mr.  Farmery  surrendered  the  lease 
on  April  9,  1696,  and  it  was  then  leased  for  twenty-one 
years  to  Thomas  Pownall,  sometime  Governor  of  New 
Jersey  and  of  South  Carolina,  who  afterwards  obtained  an 
extension  of  the  term  to  forty  years.  He  died  in  1705,  and 
the  house  was  again  leased.  Later,  it  was  divided  into  two 
tenements,  and  it  is  still  occupied  as  private  dwellings. 

In  the  meantime,  the  house  once  occupied  by  Colonel 
Berry  was  still  held  by  tenants,  the  first  of  whom  was  one 
James  Debiah,  clerk.  The  place  was  probably  neglected 
and  suffered  to  fall  into  disrepair,  though,  if  Buck's  view 
taken  in  1726,  may  be  trusted,  the  chapel  wing  and  Alnwick 
Tower  were  still  substantial  buildings.  There  was  also  a 
great  mass  of  dislodged  but  undecayed  stone,  and  in  1726, 
when  question  arose  of  repairing  the  cathedral,  dean,  chapter, 
and  bishop  saw  in  the  palace  an  economical  quarry.  A 
faculty  from  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  and  a  royal  licence 
fortified  Bishop  Reynold's  grant,  and  when,  in  1727,  the  site 
was  leased  to  Dr.  Nelthorpe  it  was  on  condition  that  the 
chapter  might,  for  two  years  more,  take  what  stone  they 
desired.  Dr.  Nelthorpe  set  to  work  to  build  a  new  house 
using  the  materials  of  the  chapel  wing  which  he  razed  ;  he 
was  succeeded  in  the  tenancy  by  Mrs.  Amcotts,  who  made 
such  additions  that  the  house  was  now  of  considerable  size, 
and  a  clause  was  inserted  in  the  lease  by  which  every  suc- 
ceeding tenant  held  it  on  condition  of  affording  entertainment 
to  the  bishop  when  his  business  brought  him  to  Lincoln. 
The  house  remained  unchanged  until  the   beginning  of  the 


204      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

nineteenth  century,  when  Mr.  Charles  Mainwaring  became 
the  tenant.  One  of  his  first  acts  was  to  clear  away  the 
stables,  which  had  covered  the  western  side  of  the  great  hall 
since  the  days  of  Colonel  Berry.  He  was  amply  rewarded 
for  his  pains,  for  the  great  oriel  of  Bishop  Alnwick  came  to 
light  as  well  as  the  other  windows  on  that  side,  all  of  which 
had  been  walled  up.  The  remainder  of  the  hall  was  then 
cleared,  care  being  taken  to  preserve  as  much  as  possible  of 
the  stone.  To  replace  these  stables  he  built  the  present 
block  between  the  gateway  and  the  Alnwick  Tower,  and  just 
to  the  north  of  the  old  chapel  wing.  He  then  turned  to  the 
ruins  which  were  beyond  hope  of  repair,  and  did  much  to 
preserve  them  by  clearing  away  the  rubbish  and  weeds 
which  covered  them.  To  him  also  is  owing  the  second 
gateway,  which  stands  within  that  of  Bishop  Smith.  Mr. 
Mainwaring  also  made  various  improvements  to  the  house 
itself — the  chief,  perhaps,  being  the  construction  of  a  terrace 
running  between  the  great  porch  of  the  hall  to  steps  at  the 
south-east  corner  of  the  house,  and  overhanging  the  lower 
court.  This,  then,  was  the  condition  of  the  house  in  1863, 
when  Bulwer  Lytton  described  it  in  "  A  Strange  Story." 

Profoundly  as  the  industrial  revolution  has  changed  the 
whole  fabric  of  society  it  has  had  almost  as  revolutionary 
an  effect  upon  the  external  side  of  the  Church  of  England, 
and  in  the  organization  of  no  diocese  has  this  been  more 
keenly  evident  than  in  that  of  Lincoln,  which,  stretching 
from  the  Humber  to  the  Thames,  included  the  Counties  of 
Leicester,  Huntingdon,  Rutland,  Oxford,  Northampton,  and 
Nottingham,  in  addition  to  Lincoln,  the  second  largest 
county  in  the  kingdom. 

In  1858  the  diocese  was  divided,  and  Buckden,  now 
without  its  bounds,  was   disposed  of  by  the  Ecclesiastical 


THE   OLD   PALACE   OF   LINCOLN     205 

Commissioners.  The  loss  was  a  relief,  for  the  estate  was  too 
large  to  be  maintained  by  the  see  so  much  impoverished  by 
Bishop  Holbeach,  even  although  the  revenue  had  been 
increased  by  the  annexation  of  the  Prebend  of  Buckden, 
and  by  the  commissioners  in  the  nineteenth  century.  The 
commissioners  were  careful  in  their  choice  of  a  new  seat  for 
the  bishop  to  find  one  both  of  moderate  size  and  near  the 
cathedral  city.  Why  they  did  not  restore  the  Old  Palace,  as 
it  was  called,  seems  mysterious  ;  but  there  is  probably  truth 
in  the  confession  one  of  their  number  made  that  they  had 
no  idea  of  the  charm  of  the  place.  The  notion  of  a  palace 
at  Lincoln  did  not  occur  to  them. 

The  house  which  is  now  part  of  the  palace,  was,  however, 
already  in  the  hands  of  the  bishop.  From  the  first  certain 
rooms  had  been  reserved  for  episcopal  use  at  times  of  visita- 
tion, and  so  forth;  and  in  1804,  for  instance,  a  clergyman  went 
to  the  palace  to  be  instituted  by  Bishop  Tomline,  though 
hitherto  his  institutions  had  always  been  at  Buckden.  But 
whereas  the  visits  of  Bishop  Tomline  were  occasional.  Bishop 
Wordsworth  made  it  a  rule  when  living  at  Riseholme  to  be 
at  the  palace  every  Friday,  except  when  on  a  Confirmation 
tour  or  his  annual  holiday,  to  meet  his  clergy,  following  in 
this  his  predecessor.  Bishop  Kaye,  who  had  taken  the  lease 
into  his  own  hands. 

In  1873  the  palace  was  put  to  a  new  use.  Bishop 
Wordsworth,  who  was  a  keen  educationalist  as  well  as  a 
strenuous  bishop,  was  much  struck  by  the  need  of  better 
training  for  divinity  students,  and  especially  for  those  for 
whom  a  university  career  was  impossible.  In  May,  1870, 
he  attended  a  service  at  the  minster,  at  which  Edward 
W.  Benson,  afterwards  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  but  then 
Prebendary  of  Heydour,  preached  a  sermon  on  this  subject. 


2o6      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

The  archbishop  afterwards  told  how,  as  they  came  away, 
Wordsworth  said  to  him  that  some  day  he  must  come  to 
Lincoln  as  chancellor  and  "  restore  the  schools  of  the 
prophets."  Three  years  later  his  plan  was  afoot.  At 
Benson's  suggestion  the  name  of  the  ancient  Scholae 
Cancellarii  was  revived — this  having  been  the  title  by  which 
the  ancient  school  of  the  chancellor  was  known  in  the 
thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries.  Two  lecture-rooms 
were  fitted  up  in  the  palace,  and  the  scholae  opened  with 
two  students.  The  number  grew  steadily,  and  more  lecture- 
rooms  were  needed  than  the  palace  could  afford.  Some  one 
suggested  that  the  Alnwick  Tower  might  be  repaired  and 
would  yield  two  fine  rooms.  The  bishop  welcomed  the  idea, 
and  gave  for  the  restoration  the  £i,ooo  raised  in  the  diocese 
to  reimburse  him  for  his  expenses  in  the  Great  Cotes  case. 
Considerable  restoration  was  necessary.  The  drawing  made 
by  Grimm  in  1784  shows  the  tower  perfect  up  to  the  first 
storey,  though  a  sapling  grew  in  the  broken  oriel  window, 
and  all  was  open  to  the  rain  and  weather.  The  tower  was 
much  in  this  state  in  1876,  but  on  February  24  the  first 
stone  for  its  restoration  was  laid.  The  work  went  rapidly 
forward,  and  the  building  was  then  fitted  up  for  lecture- 
rooms,  which  were  used  by  the  students  until  the  scholae 
removed  to  their  new  quarters  in  what  is  now  Wordsworth 
Street. 

It  was  then  determined  to  employ  the  tower  for  a  new 
purpose.  Its  fireproof  qualities  had  been  rigorously  tested 
in  the  Civil  War,  and  it  seemed  an  excellent  storehouse  for 
the  episcopal  records.  To  receive  them  the  upper  room  of 
the  tower  was  fitted  with  wooden  presses  and  shelves — part 
being  divided  off  by  a  wooden  screen  to  form  a  search-room, 
which  was  furnished  with  table  and  chairs.     The  spacious 


THE    OLD    PALACE    OF    LINCOLN     207 

lower  chamber  with  its  wide  windows  was,  at  the  same  time, 
furnished  as  an  office  for  the  bishop's  legal  secretary,  who 
there  carries  on  his  business  in  a  calm  disturbed  only  by 
the  flutter  of  pigeons  against  the  window  or  the  harsh  cry 
of  peacocks  from  below. 

In  1888  the  history  of  the  palace  began  a  fresh  chapter. 
The  inconvenience  of  Riseholme,  two  miles  from  the  city 
and  distant  from  trains,  had  been  much  felt,  and  especially 
after  the  succession  of  Dr.  Edward  King  to  the  bishopric  in 
1885.  After  some  discussion  the  Ecclesiastical  Commissioners 
agreed  to  sell  Riseholme,  and  to  enlarge  the  house  at  Lincoln 
to  a  suitable  size  that  the  bishops  might  once  more  inhabit 
their  palace  in  the  cathedral  city.  This  was  accordingly 
done.  The  old  house  was  retained  as  the  north  wing,  and 
to  this  a  long  southern  block  was  added,  extending  along 
the  terrace  built  by  Mr.  Mainwaring  and  reaching  as  far  as 
the  porch  of  the  great  hall.  The  situation  was  very 
beautiful;  Lord  Lytton  in  "A  Strange  Story"  described 
how  "  the  town  stretched,  far  and  wide,  below  with  all  its 
numberless  lights  ;  below — but  somewhat  distant ;  an  inter- 
vening space  was  covered,  here  by  the  broad  triangle  (in  the 
midst  of  which  stood,  massive  and  lonely,  the  grand  old 
church) ;  and  there,  by  the  gardens  and  scattered  cottages  or 
mansions  that  clothed  the  sides  of  the  hill."  His  words  still 
hold  good,  and  the  wide  rooms  of  the  palace  and  the 
terraces  below  stand  open  to  the  wind  and  to  the  sun. 

Perhaps  the  most  beautiful  part  of  the  palace  is  the 
domestic  chapel,  built  a  few  years  ago  on  the  spot  once 
occupied  by  the  bishop's  solar.  Raised  on  the  ancient  arch- 
way which  leads  west  to  the  upper  garden  from  the  kitchen 
court,  its  stone  looks  blanched  against  its  surroundings,  and 
from  the  city  beneath  it  seems  poised  in  mid-air.      Within  it 


2o8      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

is  decked  with  all  the  skill  of  the  modern  craftsman,  and 
though  it  must  lack  much  of  the  colour,  yet  it  may  be  that  it 
exceeds  in  dignity,  the  desecrated  chapel  that  lies  below. 

Sitting  at  the  close  of  the  day  in  the  aery  of  the  ruins, 
with  the  Trent  showing  bright  in  the  sunset,  although  many 
miles  away,  while  the  mist  lowers  over  the  factory  chimneys 
and  the  shadows  thicken  in  the  streets  which  lie  open  to  the 
view,  there  comes  a  sense  of  space,  of  the  vastness  of  time, 
of  manifold  plans  and  coloured  hopes  not  yet  fulfilled.  So 
many  men  have  passed  this  way,  and  for  all  the  palace  has 
been  the  same :  a  stimulus,  a  symbol  of  lordship  and  service, 
a  low  amen. 


t^t  (paface  of  (Uomic? 


THE  history  of  the  episcopal  palace  of  Norwich 
begins,  like  that  of  the  great  cathedral  which 
overshadows  it,  with  the  bishop  who  settled  the 
wandering  East  Anglian  see  in  this  city.  The 
first  step  to  this  change  was  probably  taken  by  Herbert  de 
Losinga,  in  1094.  Three  years  before,  when  head  of  the 
wealthy  abbey  of  Ramsey,  he  had  bought  his  bishopric  of  the 
king  for  a  great  sum  of  money,  and  from  the  very  moment  of 
his  consecration  the  sin  of  simony  had  lain  as  a  heavy  burden 
on  his  conscience.  In  defiance  of  William  Rufus  who,  as  the 
Anglo-Saxon  chronicle  tersely  relates,  when  weather-bound 
at  Hastings  on  his  way  to  Normandy,  took  his  staff  from 
Herbert  Losang,  Bishop  of  Thetford,"  he  left  the  country 
to  obtain  absolution  from  the  Pope.  This  he  won  on 
condition  that  he  should  found  religious  houses  and  build 
churches  in  proof  of  his  repentance.  At  the  same  time 
Urban  H.  gave  him  leave  to  remove  his  see,  and  Herbert 
must  have  made  his  peace  with  the  king  soon  afterwards, 
for  the  change  was  effected  in  the  following  year.  Then,  in 
fulfilment  of  the  papal  injunction,  the  bishop  began  his 
cathedral.  He  bought  of  the  king  the  Cowholm — a  great 
riverside  meadow  east  of  the  city,  at  that  time  part  of  the 
royal  manor  of  Thorpe — and  acquired  from  Roger  Bigod,  in 
exchange  for  some  estates  in  Suffolk,  the  earl's  palace  and  the 
"  land  of  St.  Michael,  which  is  called  Tombland."  On  this 
E.E.P.  P 


2IO      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

site  the  building  began  in  iog6 — king,  nobles,  and  people  all 
contributing  to  the  work,  and  the  bishop  himself  bearing  no 
small  share  of  the  expense.  The  south  side  of  the  cathedral 
was  chosen  for  the  home  of  the  Benedictine  monks  who 
were  to  have  charge  of  it,  and  by  iioi  the  monastery  had 
become  a  habitable  building,  and  the  church  was  ready  for 
consecration.  Then  Bishop  Herbert  turned  his  attention  to 
his  own  dwelling.  He  chose  for  it  the  site  which  the 
episcopal  palace  has  always  occupied,  building,  as  the  Nor- 
wich chronicler  relates,  north  of  the  cathedral  that  the  peace 
of  the  monastery  might  be  undisturbed  by  the  going  to  and 
fro  of  the  many  whose  presence  was  indispensable  to  him. 

Some  remains  of  this  first  palace  have  survived  to  the 
present  day.  Its  main  body  seems  to  have  extended  north- 
wards from  the  north  aisle  of  the  cathedral  to  which  it  was 
attached  until  the  middle  of  the  last  century.  Here,  in  the 
place  of  the  modern  drawing-room,  was  the  hall,  and  beneath 
it  a  long,  low  undercroft  with  a  barrel  roof,  strengthened  by 
Norman  arches  from  wall  to  wall.  This,  like  the  massive 
walls  of  the  square  vault  adjoining  it,  which  has  been  adapted 
to  its  present  use  as  a  kitchen  from  the  fifteenth  century,  was 
undoubtedly  part  of  the  original  house,  and  the  outline  of  a 
Norman  window  on  the  floor  above  shows  that  the  upper 
walls  are  chiefly  of  the  same  date.  A  half-buried  Norman 
doorway,  in  the  long  wing  which  runs  eastward  from  the 
main  building  and  now  contains  the  dining-room,  is  another 
relic  of  the  founder's  work.  In  1859  the  site  of  Bishop 
Herbert's  chapel  was  fixed  by  excavations  which  disclosed  a 
semi-circular  apse  beneath  the  foundations  of  its  successor. 
It  stood  east  of,  and  apart  from  the  palace,  being  probably  of 
the  same  dimensions,  132  feet  long  by  20  feet  wide,  as  Bishop 
Salmon's  chapel  which  replaced  it. 


THE    PALACE    OF    NORWICH  211 

Herbert  de  Losinga's  letters,  of  which  a  considerable 
number  have  been  preserved,  contain  several  references  to  the 
progress  of  the  mother-church,  in  which  the  work  of  his  later 
years  was  centred,  but  no  mention  of  his  own  home  in 
Norwich.  It  must,  nevertheless,  have  been  the  scene  of 
many  activities  during  his  episcopate.  Though  he  was  often 
absent  from  his  diocese  on  affairs  of  Church  and  State — for 
he  was  high  in  favour  with  William  Rufus  who  had  brought 
him  to  England,  and  given  him  the  office  of  sewer  at  his 
Court,  and  afterwards  enjoyed  the  friendship  of  Henry  I.  and 
Queen  Maud — the  chroniclers  who  are  loudest  in  their 
censures  on  the  simony  of  his  youth  all  acknowledge  that  he 
made  full  atonement  by  the  virtues  and  disinterested  devotion 
of  his  later  days.  He  showed  a  very  special  interest  in  the 
school  of  which  his  monks  of  Norwich  had  charge,  directing 
now  and  again  the  studies  of  some  of  their  pupils  in  his 
correspondence.  One  youth,  to  whom  several  of  his  letters 
are  addressed,  William  Turbe,  became  prior  and  afterwards 
bishop.  He  must  have  spent  a  considerable  part  of  his  long 
episcopate,  which  lasted  from  1146  to  1174,  ^t  the  palace,  but 
only  one  incident  is  recorded  in  connection  with  it.  About 
the  year  1150  a  council  was  summoned  to  meet  in  its  garden 
as  a  preliminary  to  the  trial  of  two  knights  who  were  accused 
of  conspiring  against  King  Stephen's  life.  Bishop  William 
presided,  and  his  friend  Nigel,  Bishop  of  Ely,  the  Abbot  of 
St.  Edmund's,  and  several  barons  were  present.  When  the 
business  for  which  they  were  assembled  had  been  disclosed, 
the  abbot  rose  and  claimed  the  two  knights  as  men  of  St. 
Edmund,  and  answerable  only  to  himself.  The  exemption  of 
this  great  and  powerful  house  from  their  jurisdiction  had 
already  been  jealously  contested  by  the  East  Anglian  bishops 
and  was  destined  to  be  the  subject  of  later  dispute,  but  on 

P   2 


212       ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

this  occasion,  as  indeed  generally,  the  abbot  prevailed,  and  the 
case  was  transferred  to  his  own  court.  The  long-standing 
rivalry  with  Bury  St.  Edmund's,  is  not,  however,  a  salient 
feature  in  William  Turbe's  career.  A  man  of  great  learning 
and  piety,  but  superstitious  almost  beyond  his  generation,  he 
is  remembered  in  his  own  city  chiefly  for  his  zealous  fostering 
of  the  cult  of  St.  William  of  Norwich — prototype  of  not  a  few 
English  boys,  reputed  to  have  been  murdered  by  the  Jews — 
and  beyond  it  for  his  courageous  and  unswerving  loyalty 
to  Becket. 

For  seventy  years  after  his  death  the  palace  was  seldom 
occupied  by  his  successors,  though  there  are  a  few  Early 
English  remains  which  show  that  one  or  more  of  them  must 
have  made  some  alterations  in  it.  The  saintly  Walter  Cal- 
thorpe,  or  Walter  of  Suffield,  the  first  to  interrupt  this  series  of 
non-resident  prelates,  owned  six  other  houses  in  the  diocese, 
and  some  of  the  bishops  who  came  after  him  seem  to  have 
preferred  to  live  at  a  distance  from  the  city,  distracted  as  it 
was  by  the  feuds  of  monks  and  citizens.  In  1272  the  struggle 
between  them  broke  out  into  open  violence.  One  mediaeval 
chronicler,  who  describes  the  havoc  wrought  by  the  impious 
populace  of  Norwich,  asserts  that  Bishop  Walter's  chapel  of 
St.  Mary  in  the  cathedral  where,  after  his  death  miracles 
were  said  to  have  been  worked  at  his  tomb,  the  monks' 
cloister,  and  the  bishop's  house  had  alone  escaped  the 
incendiary  flames.  Modern  research  has  proved  how  greatly 
the  monkish  writers  exaggerated  the  mischief  done  by  their 
opponents,  and  divides  the  blame  of  the  quarrel  impartially 
between  the  contending  parties,  but  it  is  likely  that  on  this 
occasion,  and  on  others,  the  position  of  the  episcopal  palace 
under  the  shelter  of  the  great  cathedral  saved  it  from  injury. 
For  the  bishop  of  that  time,  Roger  of  Scarning,  a  Norfolk 


THE    PALACE   OF   NORWICH  213 

man,  like  Walter  Calthorpe,  but  resembling  him  in  no  other 
respect,  showed  himself  a  strong  partisan  of  the  monks,  and 
must  have  been  cordially  hated  by  the  citizens,  against 
whom,  at  a  safe  distance,  he  launched  his  spiritual  weapons 
of  interdict  and  excommunication. 

In  the  last  year  of  this  century  the  see  of  Norwich  came 
into  the  hands  of  a  prelate  who  left  his  abiding  mark  both  on 
cathedral  and  palace.  John  Salmon  is  better  known  in 
history  as  a  diplomatist  and  a  statesman  than  as  a  bishop ; 
but  there  is  evidence  enough  to  prove  that  he  took  an  active 
interest  in  the  welfare  of  his  diocese.  He  was  there  soon 
after  his  appointment,  and  seven  years  later  spent,  it  is  said, 
some  time  at  Norwich  in  adjusting  the  differences  of  the 
monks  and  citizens.  From  the  accession  of  Edward  II., 
who  sent  him  abroad  on  various  embassies,  until  the  latter 
years  of  his  life,  when  the  duties  of  chancellor  were  added  to 
his  other  secular  business  in  England,  he  can  seldom  have 
stayed  more  than  a  few  days  consecutively  at  the  palace. 
His  deep  regret  at  his  enforced  absence  from  his  diocese  was 
expressed  in  a  letter,  still  extant,  to  the  Prior  of  Norwich ; 
and  his  generous  benefactions  both  to  cathedral  and  monas- 
tery testified  to  his  sincere  affection  for  them.  The  changes 
made  by  Bishop  Salmon  in  the  palace  probably  date  from 
1319,  when  he  obtained  a  patent  from  the  king  authorizing 
him  to  acquire  "  certain  plots  of  land  containing  47  perches 
and  4  feet  in  length,  and  23  perches  and  12  feet  in  width, 
adjacent  to  his  palace  within  the  city  of  Norwich,  for  the 
enlargement  thereof."  On  this  site  the  bishop  raised  a 
magnificent  hall,  120  feet  long  and  60  feet  wide,  with  kitchen 
and  butteries  connected.  Only  one  relic  of  this  building 
remains  above  ground,  the  beautiful  two-storied  porch  which 
stands  in  the  palace  garden  and  was  long  known  as  Bishop 


214      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

Salmon's  Gateway.  Within  this  ruin  is  the  doorway  of  the 
hall,  a  fine  Early  Decorated  work  with  bold  vaultings  over- 
head and  sharp-pointed  arches.  In  the  room  over  the  porch, 
— the  bishop's  muniment  room  in  the  eighteenth  century — 
which  is  reached  by  a  staircase  from  the  great  hall,  there  is 
an  old  door  with  beautiful  iron  work.  Some  foundations  of 
the  hall  itself,  excavated  under  Mr.  Harrod's  directions  about 
fifty  j^ears  ago,  showed  that  lines  of  clustered  pillars  ran 
within  it  parallel  to  its  east  and  west  walls  and  forming  two 
aisles  on  either  side  of  the  main  part  of  the  building.  There 
was  a  doorway  in  the  west  wall  opposite  the  porch,  and  three 
were  found  in  the  north  wall.  By  the  central  and  largest  of 
these  a  passage  into  the  kitchen  was  reached.  The  other 
two  led  into  the  pantry  and  buttery.  The  discovery  at  the 
same  time  of  the  foundation  of  a  staircase  connecting  the 
private  apartments  with  the  south-west  end  of  the  hall  points 
to  the  conclusion  that  the  "  great  chamber"  of  the  palace  at 
this  period  was  on  the  same  site  as  the  dining-room,  which 
is  wholly  modern,  but  rests  on  a  vaulted  substructure  of  the 
fourteenth  century.  Bishop  Salmon  must  have  made  con- 
siderable alterations  in  this  wing.  The  buildings  themselves 
are  mainly  ascribed  to  him,  besides  the  substructure,  where 
the  vaulting  and  piers,  as  in  the  part  of  the  palace  immediately 
adjoining  the  cathedral,  date  from  his  time.  Besides  erecting 
his  great  hall  and  reconstructing  and  probably  enlarging  the 
early  palace,  Salmon  busied  himself  with  the  chapel.  He 
pulled  down  Herbert  de  Losinga's  building — "the  old  chapel" 
mentioned  in  episcopal  records  of  1277  and  1294 — ^^'^  raised 
another  on  its  site,  replacing  the  Norman  apse  by  a  square 
end.  Here  his  successor,  William  Ayermin,  a  man  of  a  very 
different  stamp,  faithless  and  avaricious,  established  a  chantry 
of  three  priests,  for  each   of  whom  he   provided  a   yearly 


THE    PALACE   OF   NORWICH  215 

stipend  of  six  marks.  All  were  to  be  appointed  by  the 
bishop ;  to  have  apartments  in  the  palace,  with  meat,  drink, 
and  lodging  at  his  cost,  and  to  pray  daily  for  the  souls  of  their 
founder  and  his  family.  More  than  a  century  later  Bishop 
Walter  Lyhert  abolished  this  chantry,  finding,  possibly, 
the  maintenance  of  three  chaplains  in  his  palace  somewhat 
irksome.  It  is  recorded  of  William  Ayermin  also  that  he 
obtained  licence  to  enclose  his  palace  and  manor-houses 
with  stone  walls  and  keep  them  fortified.  One  of  his  suc- 
cessors, the  warlike  Henry  Despenser,  had  no  need  of  any 
such  artificial  defence  against  his  enemies.^  Capgrave,  the 
Lynn  monk,  who  was  born  some  thirteen  years  before 
Despenser's  death,  and  included  him  amongst  his  twenty- 
four  illustrious  Henries,  described  him  as  "  a  soldier  valorous 
in  all  things,  and  who  in  the  vigour  of  youth  seemed  to  thirst 
after  warfare  only."  The  see  of  Norwich  was  bestowed  on 
him  by  the  Pope  in  reward  for  his  success  in  warring  against 
the  enemies  of  the  Church,  and  his  eulogist  goes  on  to 
record  that  "for  many  years  he  ruled  his  people  in  peace, 
and  obtained  the  affections  of  all  beneath  his  sway."  When 
the  peasants'  rebellion  spread  to  Norfolk,  Despenser  hastened 
against  the  insurgents  with  a  small  following,  and  after 
defeating  a  detachment  of  them  at  Newmarket  made  his  way 
to  Norwich.  There,  where  John  the  Litester,  ringleader  of 
the  rebels  in  that  part,  had  preceded  him  and  "  committed 
many  horrid  deeds,  especially  in  the  destruction  of  houses 
and  places  in  which  certain  nobles  lived  who  were  friends  of 
the  law  or  of  the  king,"  he  was  welcomed  with  universal 
joy.  Many  of  the  nobles  and  gentry  of  the  county  had  joined 
him  on  the  way  to  the  city  and  left  it  with  him  in  pursuit  of 
the  insurgents,  who  had  fled  at  his  approach.  At  North 
Walsham  they  were  overtaken  and  utterly  routed,  and  their 


2i6      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

leader  was  captured  and  hanged,  the  bishop  himself,  after 
confessing  and  absolving  him,  attending  him  at  the  gallows. 
Four  and  a  half  centuries  later  the  road  down  which  a 
Bishop  of  Norwich  had  marched  forth  from  the  precincts  of 
the  palace  to  cross  the  river  at  the  head  of  6,000  men-at-arms 
was  pointed  out  to  Dean  Stanley.  According  to  the  current 
tradition  the  bishop  was  William  Turbe,  but  the  legend  is 
more  in  keeping  with  the  character  of  Despenser.  If  it  does 
belong  to  him,  however,  it  is  probably  connected  with  a  later 
event  in  his  career.  The  courage  and  somewhat  ruthless 
determination  which  he  had  displayed  in  crushing  the 
rebellion  of  1381,  and  which  provoked  a  conspiracy  against 
his  life  in  the  following  year,  coupled  with  the  military  renown 
of  his  younger  days,  were  perhaps  the  cause  of  the  Pope's 
choice  of  him  to  lead  a  crusade  against  the  supporters  of  his 
rival,  the  Anti-Pope  Clement  VII.  Money  was  collected  all 
over  the  kingdom  for  this  enterprise,  and  Despenser  under- 
took to  enter  France  at  the  head  of  3,000  men-at-arms  and 
3,000  archers.  Through  no  fault  of  his  own  the  expedition 
ended  disastrously,  and  the  bishop  returned  to  be  called  to 
account  in  Parliament  for  its  failure.  A  fighting  man  from 
beginning  to  end  of  his  long  career,  and  constantly  at 
variance  with  his  contemporaries,  contending  now  against 
the  regular  clergy  of  his  diocese,  among  whom  his  own  monks 
of  Norwich  were  foremost  in  opposition  to  him,  now  against 
"  good  old  Sir  Thomas  Erpingham,"  whose  Lollard  proclivi- 
ties he  detested;  he  was  a  staunch  supporter  of  Richard  II. 
in  his  fall,  and  suffered  imprisonment  from  Henry  IV.  in 
consequence.  One  chronicler,  who  extols  his  zeal  in  attack- 
ing Lollardy,  records  his  oath  that  "  if  any  of  that  perverse 
sect  should  presume  to  preach  in  his  diocese  he  should  be 
given  to  the  flames  or  lose  his  head."     William  Sawtre,  the 


THE    PALACE   OF   NORWICH  217 

first  martyr  who  suffered  at  Smithfield  under  the  persecuting 
statute  of  1401,  was  actually  examined  by  Despenser  at  his 
Suffolk  manor  of  South  Elmham,  and  may  very  probably 
have  been  imprisoned  in  the  dungeon  of  the  bishop's  palace 
at  Norwich  in  the  spring  or  early  summer  of  1399.  Some 
later  heretics  were  confined  in  this  bishop's  prison,  which 
tradition  identifies  with  a  cellar  off  the  kitchen,  described  by 
a  recent  writer  as  unlighted,  unventilated,  and  undrained ; 
its  roof,  a  rudel}^  constructed  stone  vault,  springing  from  a 
central  column,  where  the  staples  to  which  the  prisoners' 
chains  were  attached  are  still  visible.  No  record  seems  to 
survive  of  its  use  under  Henry  Despenser's  successor, 
Alexander  of  Totington,  the  Prior  of  Norwich,  with  whom 
the  soldier-bishop  had  been  engaged  in  a  long  contest.  One 
act  of  Alexander's  brief  episcopate  was  the  repairing  of  the 
palace,  which  for  a  considerable  period  after  his  death  was 
occupied  only  by  suffragans.  This  was  the  case  under  John 
Wakering,  who  was  bishop  nearly  two  years  before  he  came 
into  his  diocese  to  hold  an  ordination  at  Norwich.  He  had 
for  long  been  chancellor  of  the  Duchy  of  Lancaster  and 
master  of  the  rolls,  and  in  the  year  of  his  consecration  to  the 
see  went  as  ambassador  to  the  Council  of  Constance.  A 
non-resident  bishop  he  is  remembered,  nevertheless,  in  the 
history  of  Norwich  Palace  for  the  beautiful  cloister  which  he 
built  from  it  to  the  church  door.  This,  of  which  no  vestige 
has  survived,  ran  east  of  the  palace,  extending  from  the 
south  end  of  Bishop  Salmon's  great  hall  to  the  cathedral. 
It  was  paved  with  tiles  of  various  colours  laid  chequerwise, 
and  covered  with  a  handsome  roof  of  stonework.  In  the 
last  year  of  his  life  Wakering  became  a  bitter  persecutor  of 
Lollardy.  A  large  number  of  Norfolk  heretics  were  brought 
before     him ;   but    the    first    to  suffer  at  Norwich  was  one 


2i8      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

William  White,  who  was  condemned  at  a  synod  held  in  the 
chapel  of  the  palace  more  than  three  years  after  Wakering's 
death,  and  burnt  at  the  stake  in  the  "  Lollards'  Pit  "  on  the 
eastern  outskirts  of  the  city. 

The  career  of  the  able  and  statesmanlike  William  of 
Alnwick,  under  whom  White  suffered,  resembled  that  of  his 
predecessor  in  several  respects,  but  especially  in  his  relent- 
less persecution  of  Lollardy.  Pleasanter  associations  with 
his  episcopate,  however,  are  not  wanting.  He  was  a  great 
architect,  and  before  his  translation  to  Lincoln  in  1436, 
besides  completing  the  cloisters  of  Norwich  Cathedral,  he 
had  erected  the  great  portal  of  its  west  front  and  a  gateway 
to  the  episcopal  palace.  Both  were  afterwards  finished  by 
one  of  his  immediate  successors,  Walter  Lyhert,  the 
cathedral  porch  being  paid  for  by  a  sum  of  money  which 
Bishop  Alnwick  had  left  for  that  purpose.  His  gate-house, 
still  the  main  entrance  to  the  episcopal  precincts,  stands 
upon  St.  Martin's  Plain,  opposite  the  church  of  St.  Martin-at- 
Palace.  It  is  a  lofty  two-storied  structure  with  two  arched 
entrances  :  the  larger  for  carriages,  the  smaller,  on  its  western 
side,  for  foot-passengers.  Both,  which  open  beneath  the 
same  groined  vaulting,  are  flanked  by  squared  flat  buttresses 
composed  of  stone  quoins  and  flints.  Cotman's  etching  of 
the  palace  gateway,  which  was  first  published  at  Norwich 
between  the  years  1812  and  1818,  shows  that  one  of  the 
buttresses  was  crowned  by  a  seated  figure  on  a  pinnacle.  In 
1847,  when  the  antiquary,  John  Britton,  described  the  gate- 
houses of  Norwich  to  the  Archseological  Institute,  this  was 
still  there,  but  the  sculptured  figures  which  now  surmount 
the  buttresses,  their  pedestals,  and  the  whole  of  the  parapet 
between  them,  are  modern.  The  archways,  the  larger  of 
which  has  its  spandrels  adorned  with  rich  tracery  mouldings 


THE    PALACE    OF    NORWICH  219 

enclosing  blank  shields,  and  the  elaborate  frieze  of  panelled 
compartments  above  them,  surmounted  by  a  canopied  niche, 
probably  belong  to  the  original  design,  though  the  crowned 
and  seated  figure  under  the  canopy  may  be  of  later  date.  It 
is  likely  that  the  gate-house  buildings  extended  to  a  consider- 
able distance  both  east  and  west.  In  the  sixteenth  century 
they  included  stables,  hay-house,  slaughter-house,  the 
dwelling-house  of  the  keeper  of  the  palace,  and  porter's 
lodge  with  lodging  over  it,  besides  chambers  in  the  two 
towers  of  the  gateway  itself;  but  all  have  suffered  from 
injudicious  restoration,  as  well  as  from  neglect,  and  it 
is  now  difficult  to  determine  their  former  dimensions.  The 
massive  oak  doors  were  the  work  of  Lyhert,  and  bear,  as 
do  many  parts  of  the  cathedral,  his  rebus,  a  hart  lying 
in  water. 

By  his  contemporary,  Gascoigne,  Lyhert  was  described 
as  of  Cornwall.  The  anniversary  of  one  John  Lyhert,  how- 
ever, was  kept  by  the  monks  of  Norwich  Priory  in  the 
early  part  of  the  fifteenth  century — a  fact  which  lends  some 
countenance  to  the  theory  that  the  bishop  was  of  Norfolk 
ancestry.  A  Fellow  and  Provost  of  Oriel,  he  was  a  leading 
man  at  Oxford,  but  had  held  no  preferment  of  very  great 
importance  before  the  end  of  1445  when  he  was  promoted  to 
the  see  of  Norwich,  through  the  influence  of  his  patron  the 
Duke  of  Suffolk.  The  king  had  intended  the  vacancy  for  the 
Provost  of  Eton,  when  his  minister  anticipated  him,  but 
Lyhert's  appointment  did  not  meet  with  any  serious  opposi- 
tion, and  not  long  afterwards  he  became  confessor  to  the 
young  queen,  Margaret  of  Anjou.  Though  Gascoigne  writes  of 
him  as  resident  at  Court  on  account  of  this  office,  there  are  not 
wanting  indications  that  he  was  a  good  deal  occupied  with 
the  affairs  of  his  diocese.     Under  his  immediate  predecessor, 


220      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL   PALACES 

Bishop  Browne,  the  old  feud  between  monks  and  citizens 
had  broken  out  again — there  had  been  open  riots,  and 
the  mayor  had  laid  siege  to  the  priory  at  the  head  of  the 
commons.  Heavy  penalties  fell  on  the  city  in  consequence, 
but  through  Lyhert's  good  offices  its  liberties  were  restored 
in  1447.  Both  within  and  without  his  diocese  he  played  the 
part  of  a  peacemaker.  The  "  Paston  Letters"  show  how  the 
Norfolk  people  looked  to  him  to  do  justice  in  an  age  of 
violence  and  lawlessness,  and  his  mission  to  Savoy,  as 
mediator  between  two  rival  popes,  is  said  to  have  brought 
about  the  resignation  of  one  of  them. 

The  year  of  this  embassy  was  marked  by  a  very  rare  event  in 
the  annals  of  the  episcopal  palace.  On  Saturday,  August  29, 
1449,  Henry  VI.  came  to  Norwich  and  stayed  here  until  the 
following  Monday  night  "  at  the  sole  expense,"  we  are  told, 
"  of  the  bishop,  the  prior,  the  mayor,  and  commons."  Since 
the  cost  of  the  king's  entertainment  was  shared  by  the 
monastery  and  corporation  it  is  likely  that  he  brought 
a  large  train  with  him,  and  the  queen  herself  may  have 
accompanied  him  on  this  visit  to  her  confessor.  Lyhert's 
alterations  in  the  palace  are  believed  to  have  been  made  for 
this  occasion.  The  present  drawing-room,  modernized 
though  it  is,  is  a  Perpendicular  building,  and  has  a  hand- 
some timber  roof  above  its  plaster  ceiling.  In  the  frieze 
of  panelled  compartments  over  the  oaken  doors  of  the 
gateway,  which  are  undoubtedly  Lyhert's  work,  the  letter 
M,  crowned,  alternates  with  blank  shields.  Is  it  fanciful 
to  suppose  that  the  frieze  had  been  left  unfinished  by 
Bishop  Alnwick  and  that  this  decoration  was  designed  by 
Lyhert  in  compliment  to  the  queen  ?  Three  and  a  half 
years  later  Margaret  was  certainly  in  Norwich,  being  then 
entertained   by  the  city.      She  had  come   into    Norfolk   to 


THE    PALACE    OF    NORWICH  221 


win  what  friends  she  could  against  the  growing  Yorkist 
faction,  and  John  Paston's  wife  wrote  him  a  shrewd  descrip- 
tion of  how  she  "  made  right  much  "  of  one  of  the  ladies  she 
summoned  to  her  presence. 

From  the  breaking  out  of  the  Wars  of  the  Roses  until  his 
death  in  1472,  Lyhert  was  much  in  his  diocese,  and  his 
popularity  there  was  undoubtedly  great.  James  Gloys,  a 
dependent  of  the  Pastons,  wrote  to  his  master  that  "my 
lord  of  Norwich  hath  so  flatered  the  lay  pepill  as  he  hath 
redyn  a  bought  his  visitacion  that  he  hath  thers  herts." 
Like  many  of  his  predecessors,  however,  he  seems  to  have 
often  resided  at  Gaywood,  Hoxne,  or  some  other  house 
belonging  to  his  see.  Bishop  Salmon's  improvements  had 
made  the  palace  too  large  for  his  successors.  Their 
suffragans  lived  in  it  for  the  greater  part  of  the  fifteenth 
century,  and  the  office  of  keeper  of  the  palace,  to  which 
some  references  occur  at  a  later  date,  may  possibly  have 
already  been  long  in  existence  as  a  necessary  provision  to 
preserve  it  from  decay  during  the  periods  in  which  it  was 
unoccupied. 

The  annual  feast  of  the  gild  of  St.  George  was  first  held 
at  the  palace  during  the  episcopate  of  Bishop  Goldwell, 
Lyhert's  successor.  This  association  had  been  formed  in 
1385  as  a  religious  fraternity,  the  brothers  and  sisters  of 
which  bound  themselves  to  hear  Mass  and  evensong  and 
offer  "  a  candel  brennand  "  and  a  halfpenny  in  the  cathedral 
on  St.  George's  Day ;  to  sing  a  requiem  for  all  Christian 
souls  on  the  day  following  the  festival ;  to  attend  the  dirges 
and  Masses  sung  on  the  death  of  a  brother  or  sister,  and 
make  a  weekly  payment  for  the  support  of  such  members  as 
had  fallen  into  poverty.  After  the  grant  of  a  charter  in  1417 
the   community    increased    in    importance    and    became    a 


222      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

powerful  factor  in  the  municipal  life  of  Norwich.  Even 
before  Henry  V,  ratified  and  confirmed  it  to  be  a  gild  for  ever 
some  secular  observances  had  been  added  to  the  religious 
ceremonies  of  the  festival.  The  day  seems  to  have  begun  by 
the  assembling  of  the  brethren  on  horseback  to  ride  without 
the  city  to  the  wood  where  the  little  St.  William  had  been 
murdered.  There  were,  too,  processions  through  the  city 
and  a  conflict  between  the  George  and  the  Dragon,  and  when 
the  Mass  in  the  cathedral  was  over  all  the  brothers  and 
sisters  met  for  the  feast,  towards  which  each  had  contributed 
for  "  mete,  wax,  and  minestral  x^,"  at  the  place  assigned  by 
their  alderman.  The  assembly  books  of  the  gild  show  that 
it  was  proposed  in  1473  that  this  place  should  be  the  palace 
if  it  might  be  obtained  for  the  purpose;  and  that  the  festival 
was  certainly  held  there  from  1495  to  1498.  In  the  absence 
of  evidence  to  the  contrary  it  seems  likely  enough  that 
Bishop  Salmon's  great  hall,  even  then,  possibly,  showing  signs 
of  the  decay  to  which  the  neglect  of  later  generations  con- 
signed it,  was  the  usual  scene  of  the  banquet  during  the  last 
quarter  of  the  fifteenth  and  the  first  half  of  the  sixteenth 
centuries.  Many  of  the  leading  men  of  Norfolk  were  enrolled 
amongst  the  members  of  the  gild  of  St.  George.  Lyhert 
himself  belonged  to  it,  as  too,  did  Sir  John  Fastolf ;  and  for  a 
brief  season  every  year  the  old  building  must  have  been 
waked  into  life  by  the  joyous  company  in  their  gay  liveries  of 
scarlet  and  "sanguin,"  that  thronged  its  deserted  aisles  and 
ate  together  under  its  roof.  The  accounts  of  1530  record  the 
payment  of  26s.  8d.  for  grey  canvas  to  line  the  cloth  belong- 
ing to  the  cathedral  church,  which  was  always  lent  when  the 
feast  was  held  in  the  bishop's  palace,  and  in  the  following 
years  there  were  charges  for  cupboards,  stulps,  and  various 
repairs.     In  1536  a  sum  of  los.  was  paid  for  divers  expenses 


THE    PALACE    OF   NORWICH  223 

and  writings  for  the  lease  of  "  Palacehall "  to  Master  Steward. 
This  evidently  refers  to  the  lease  by  which  Bishop  Nix 
granted  his  great  hall,  with  buttery,  pantry,  kitchen  and 
other  offices  at  its  north  end,  to  the  gild  that  they  might  hold 
their  annual  festival  there,  for  six  days  before  and  six  days 
after  St.  George's  Day,  with  the  proviso  that  should  the  king, 
queen,  bishop,  or  any  other  lord  or  person  of  dignity  keep 
house  in  the  palace  at  that  time,  the  feast  was  not  to  be 
celebrated  there  without  the  bishop's  licence.  In  1548, 
however,  the  gild,  now  formed  into  St.  George's  Company, 
decreed  that  after  attending  divine  service  in  the  cathedral 
its  members  should  proceed  to  the  common  hall,  "  there 
to  take  such  repast  as  the  feastmakers  shall  provide." 
This  common  hall  was  the  church  of  the  dissolved  house 
of  the  Black  Friars,  where  the  annual  feasts  of  the  cor- 
poration and  their  gilds  were  henceforth  held,  and  Bishop 
Salmon's  great  hall  fell  once  more  into  disuse.  It  was 
partly  pulled  down  between  1550  and  1554  by  Thirlby, 
one  of  Mary's  bishops,  and  the  commissioners  who  sur- 
veyed the  palace  forty  years  later  reported  that  "  the  walles 
yet  stand  ruinous,"  and  that  no  attempt  had  been  made 
to  restore  them. 

Bishop  Nix's  lease  was  perhaps  made  in  consequence  of 
the  very  heavy  sentence  passed  on  him  in  the  previous  year, 
when  he  had  been  brought  to  trial  on  the  charge — probably 
only  used  as  a  pretext  for  royal  extortion — of  infringing  the 
customs  of  Thetford  by  citing  its  mayor  to  appear  before 
him,  and  had  been  condemned  to  pay  £"10,000.  He  was 
imprisoned  in  the  Marshalsea,  where,  being  totally  blind  and 
upwards  of  ninety,  he  can  hardly  have  kept  the  "  good 
heart "  of  which  Gardiner,  when  he  was  ambassador  to 
Rome  on  the  matter  of  the  divorce  some  years  before,  had 


224      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

told  the  Pope,  relating  "  a  merry  tale  "  how  the  octogenarian 
Bishop  of  Norwich  "  wolde  have  a  chamber  devised  nere  the 
grounde  without  anj^  stayres,  to  lie  in  twentie  yeres  hens 
when  he  knew  well  he  shulde  be  somewhat  feble."  It  is 
hardly  safe  to  assume  that  this  chamber  belonged  to  the 
palace,  for  Nix  seems  to  have  resided  a  good  deal  at  Hoxne, 
but  one  room  at  least  within  its  precincts  must  have  seldom 
lacked  an  inmate.  The  bishop,  whose  consistent  and  dis- 
interested opposition  to  every  form  of  innovation  brought 
him  no  favour  in  high  places,  was  a  ruthless  persecutor,  and 
as  the  reformed  doctrines  were  spreading  rapidly  in  the 
diocese,  his  dungeon  cannot  often  have  been  empty.  One 
reformer  whom  he  arrested  for  an  eloquent  sermon  against 
superstition,  Nicholas  Shaxton,  afterwards  Bishop  of  Salis- 
bury, is  said  to  have  been  succeeded  in  the  palace  prison 
by  Latimer's  "  Saint  Bilney,"  who  suffered  at  the  stake  in 
the  Lollards'  Pit  for  holding  doctrines  so  similar  to  those 
which  Shaxton  had  preached  that  Nix  is  said  to  have 
exclaimed  after  his  death :  "  Christ's  mother !  I  fear  I 
have  burnt  Abel  and  let  Cain  go." 

Persecution  was  still  rife  under  Nix's  successor,  William 
Rugge  or  Reppes.  He  was  head  of  the  ancient  abbey  of 
St.  Benet's,  Hulme,  and  before  his  consecration  the  estates 
of  his  house  with  those  of  Hickling  Priory  were  transferred 
to  the  see  of  Norwich,  stripped,  by  the  same  Act  of  Parlia- 
ment, of  all  its  ancient  possessions  with  the  solitary  exception 
of  "  the  palyce  called  the  Bisshoppes  Palyce "  and  such 
appurtenances  in  the  priory  as  the  bishops  had  always 
enjoyed.  With  resources  thus  impoverished  it  is  small 
wonder  that  Bishop  Rugge  fell  into  financial  difficulties, 
and  was  at  last  obliged  to  resign.  The  Norfolk  historian, 
Blomefield,  preserves   some   lines   which   are   said   to  have 


THE    PALACE   OF   NORWICH  225 

been  composed  by  an  old  officer  of  the  bishopric  on  this 
occasion : — 

"  POOR  WILL,  THOU  rugged  art  and  ragged  ALL, 
Thy  abbey  cannot  bless  thee  in  such  fame 
To  keep  a  pallace  fair  and  stately  hall 
When  gone  is  thence  that  should  maintain  the  same, 
First  pay  thy  debts,  and  hence  return  to  cell, 
And  pray  the  blessed  Saint  whom  thou  dost  serve 
That  others  may  maintaine  the  pallace  well, 
For  if  Thou  stay'st  we  all  are  like  to  starve." 

In  1548  Rugge  had  obtained  a  royal  licence  to  alienate  the 
palace  to  Sir  Francis  Bryan,  but  the  bargain  was  never  com- 
pleted. It  seems  to  have  been  after  its  failure  that  he  carried 
away  the  carved  oak  panelling  from  the  abbot's  chamber  at 
St.  Benet's  and  used  it  for  the  wainscoting  of  the  walls  of  the 
room  which  adjoins  the  modern  drawing-room  on  the  south. 
Here  are  still  to  be  seen  the  arms  of  the  abbey,  of  Sir  John 
Fastolf,  and  of  some  well-known  Norfolk  families,  besides  the 
portraits  of  various  famous  characters  of  history  and  legend 
— Joshua,  Deborah,  Caesar,  Charlemagne,  Ulysses,  Penelope, 
and  others — with  their  names  carved  and  attached  to  them. 

A  few  months  before  Bishop  Rugge  laid  down  his  staff  a 
desperate  battle  was  fought  on  St.  Martin's  Plain,  just  outside 
Bishop  Alnwick's  Gateway,  in  which  the  Norfolk  insurgents 
under  Kett  utterly  routed  the  Marquis  of  Northampton  and 
his  Italian  mercenaries.  Some  days  before  the  rebels  had 
fought  their  way  into  the  city  over  Bishop's  Bridge,  which  is 
said  to  have  been  connected  with  the  palace  as  early  as  1249. 
They  were  accused  by  contemporary  writers  of  having  set 
fire  to  the  city  gate  on  the  bridge,  called  Bishop's  Gate, 
besides  many  houses  in  "  Holmstrete,"  the  present  Bishop- 
bridge  Street ;  but  no  attack  on  either  cathedral  or  palace  is 
recorded  against  them. 

E.E.P.  (^ 


226      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL   PALACES 

With  the  first  of  Elizabeth's  bishops  came  a  change  in  the 
history  of  the  episcopal  palace.  John  Parkhurst,  who  filled 
the  see  from  1560  to  1575,  made  it  his  home  for  a  considerable 
part  of  that  time,  and  spent  largely  on  its  repairs.  A  friend 
of  the  martyrologist  Foxe,  who  visited  him  at  Norwich  shortly 
after  his  consecration,  he  had  fled  to  Switzerland  on  Queen 
Mary's  accession,  and  formed  friendships  with  the  Continental 
reformers  which  lasted  to  the  end  of  his  life.  Norwich  was 
supposed  to  have  been  leavened  with  popery  by  Bishop 
Hopton,  the  late  queen's  confessor,  and  Parkhurst,  whose 
diocesan  rule  was  generally  characterized  by  a  masterly 
inactivity,  showed  some  zeal  in  proceeding  against  suspected 
Papists.  One  of  them,  however,  a  Mr.  Cotton,  who  feigned 
or  made  convenient  use  of  a  tertian  ague,  he  allowed  to 
escape  him,  and  the  archbishop  wrote  in  vain  pressing  for 
his  arrest.  But  it  was  his  dealings  with  the  Puritans  that 
generally  incurred  Parker's  censures.  "  He  winketh  at  schis- 
matics and  anabaptists,"  Sir  Wilham  Cecil  wrote  of  him  in 
1561,  and  his  sympathies  were  always  with  "  the  fantastical 
folk  "  who  supported  prophesy ings  and  demanded  loaf-bread 
for  the  Communion.  The  bishop's  affection  for  foreign  Pro- 
testants led  to  one  somewhat  strange  proceeding.  About 
the  time  of  his  elevation  to  the  see  the  Mayor  and  Corpora- 
tion of  Norwich  had  waited  on  the  Duke  of  Norfolk  with  a 
petition  that  he  would  encourage  some  of  the  refugees  from  the 
Low  Countries  to  settle  amongst  them,  and  so  restore  their 
decaying  worsted  manufacture.  Four  years  later  when  a  royal 
patent  was  granted  authorizing  the  establishment  of  some 
thirty  master-workmen  and  their  households — not  exceeding 
in  all  three  hundred  Dutch  and  Walloons — in  the  city,  there 
was  already  a  considerable  number  of  these  strangers  in 
residence,    and   in    1565  the  duke  wrote  to  the  archbishop 


THE    PALACE    OF   NORWICH  227 

asking  him  to  sanction  the  grant  of  a  vacant  church  for  their 
use.  He  had  already  obtained  Parkhurst's  consent,  and  the 
matter  was  settled  for  the  Walloon  congregation  by  a  lease 
of  the  chapel  of  the  bishop's  palace.  Here  for  more  than 
seventy  years  the  strangers  worshipped,  not  always  fulfilling 
their  duty  of  keeping  the  building  in  repair,  and,  in  the  latter 
part  of  their  occupation,  sometimes  deserting  it  for  the  more 
attractive  services  of  the  parish  churches  in  the  city. 

In  the  palace  itself  Parkhurst  kept  up  a  lavish  hospitality 
until,  in  the  last  three  years  of  his  life,  he  fell  on  evil  days. 
He  had  entrusted  the  collection  of  the  tenths  of  his  diocese 
to  a  dishonest  receiver,  who  appropriated  them  to  his  own 
uses.  In  1572  the  bishop  was  summoned  to  pay  the  arrears 
of  two  years  into  the  royal  exchequer,  and  discovered  the 
fraud  which  had  been  practised  on  him.  The  offender  was 
imprisoned,  but  it  does  not  appear  that  Parkhurst  ever 
recovered  the  missing  tenths.  He  was  obliged  to  leave 
Norwich  and  live  in  comparative  retirement  at  Ludham, 
whence  he  wrote  that  he  "  was  forced  to  live  in  miserable 
sort,  neither  able  to  maintain  a  family  fit  for  his  place, 
neither  to  build  nor  repair  his  houses,  nor  bestow  his  liberality 
where  he  would,  neither  to  keep  hospitality  or  relieve  the 
poor." 

One  result  of  Parkhurst's  straitened  circumstances — he 
had  to  pay  ;£"400  a  year  into  the  royal  exchequer  to  make  up 
the  deficiency — was  that  his  successor,  Edmund  Freake, 
found  most  of  the  houses  of  the  see  falling  into  decay.  An 
allowance  for  dilapidations  was  granted  him  out  of  the  estate 
of  his  predecessor,  some  of  whose  charitable  legacies  and 
bequests  were  in  consequence  revoked  by  the  executors. 
The  matter  was  brought  before  the  Privy  Council,  and 
Freake,  who  had  repaired  both  the  palace  and  the  house  at 

Q   2 


228      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

Ludham,  was  urged  to  surrender  the  compensation  which 
was  his  legal  due.  He  showed  considerable  reluctance  to 
yield,  and  the  lords'  letter  was  followed  by  a  second  in  which 
they  hinted  plainly  how  greatly  their  good  opinion  of  him 
would  be  enhanced  by  his  compliance.  The  bishop's 
hesitation  was  probably  not  prompted  by  avarice.  Not  long 
afterwards  he  showed  some  disinterestedness  in  steadily 
refusing  promotion  to  the  wealthier  see  of  Ely,  because  he 
was  loath  in  his  old  age  to  incur  the  infamy  of  furthering  an 
iniquitous  scheme  of  Elizabeth  and  her  ministers  to  appro- 
priate some  of  its  revenues.  On  that  one  occasion  he  seems 
to  have  followed  his  own  judgment,  but  in  matters  that  lay 
nearer  home  he  can  seldom  have  been  a  free  agent. 

If  a  full  chronicle  of  life  in  the  palace  during  Bishop 
Freake's  episcopate  existed  it  would  probably  be  largely 
made  up  of  the  sayings  and  doings  of  the  lady,  who  was 
generally  described  there  as  "  Mrs.  Busshopp."  It  was  well 
known  in  that  household  that  when  Mrs.  Freake  wanted 
anything  done  "  my  lord  "  must  straightway  do  it,  "  will  he 
nil  he."  The  poor  old  man  complained  with  tears  to  his 
servants  that  if  he  did  not  do  as  his  wife  willed  "  she 
wolde  make  him  weary  of  his  liffe  "  ;  and  one  of  them  related 
that  if  any  visitor  came  to  the  palace  without  a  present  she 
would  "  looke  on  him  as  the  devill  lookes  over  Lyncolne." 

Under  the  lax  rule  of  Parkhurst  the  numerous  sectaries  of 
Norwich  had  enjoyed  comparative  immunity,  and  though 
their  prejudices  were  now  and  again  shocked  by  his  broad 
and  tolerant  teaching  he  was  not  unpopular.  Freake,  on 
the  contrary,  did  his  utmost  to  restore  discipline  in  the 
disorderly  diocese,  and  had  not  been  there  much  more  than 
a  year  when  certain  preachers  of  the  city  petitioned  Parlia- 
ment  against   the   ceremonies  on  which   he  insisted.      He 


THE    PALACE    OF   NORWICH  229 

found  his  clergy  refractory  and  insubordinate,  and  was 
involved  besides  in  a  serious  dispute  with  his  chancellor. 
Here  again  Mrs.  Freake  was  active,  and  the  good  people  of 
Norwich  maintained  that  the  bishop  deposed  Dr.  Becon  at 
her  instigation.  She  wished,  they  said,  to  turn  every  honest 
man  out  of  his  presence.  There  was  but  one  religious 
person,  in  their  sense  of  the  word,  in  the  palace — a  certain 
Mr.  Chamberlayne,  his  steward ;  and  Mrs.  Freake  left  her 
husband  no  peace  till  he  had  been  "  thrust  out  of  doors." 
She  was  one  of  several  people  against  whom  formal  deposi- 
tions were  made  for  abetting  the  bishop  in  showing  favour 
to  the  Papists.  It  was  a  time  of  great  severity  against  the 
recusants,  and  Freake  was  certainly  very  gentle  in  his 
dealings  with  them.  A  characteristic  letter  of  his  to  one 
has  been  preserved  :  "  Having  of  late  receaved  verie  sharpe 
reprehension  from  my  Lordes  of  the  Counsaill  for  my  lenitie 
extended  towardes  you  and  the  reste  in  question  for  religion 
in  theese  partes,  upon  some  complaint  made  against  me  for 
that  your  libertie,  I  am  hereupon  urged  to  call  you  and  the 
reste  to  prison,  requiringe  you  therefore  not  to  faile  in  your 
repaire  to  James  Bradshawes  in  Norwich,  within  tenne  dales 
next  after  the  receipt  hereof,  there  remayninge  as  before. 
And  so  I  bid  you  well  to  faire  in  Christe.  Ludham,  this 
13th  of  March,  1581.  Your  lovinge  friende,  Edmund 
Norwich."  This  was  written  before  an  event  which  must 
have  stirred  all  Norwich  to  excitement,  and  been  the  occasion 
of  no  little  righteous  triumph  amongst  the  godly  folk  who 
had  described  their  bishop  and  his  wife  a  few  years  before  as 
"  linked  "  to  "  the  whole  rabble  of  the  Papists."  Two  of  the 
bishop's  family  were  found  attending  Mass  in  Norwich,  and 
he  wrote  in  consternation  to  the  lord  treasurer  to  explain  the 
untoward  circumstance.     Both  persons — one  his  butler,  the 


230      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL   PALACES 

other  a  lawyer,  whom  he  described  as  "  a  man  of  small 
reckoning  " — had  been  constant  in  attendance  at  the  public 
service  and  sermons  in  his  own  house,  and  he  had  been 
deceived  by  their  apparent  conformity.  What  with  his 
household,  which  must  have  always  been  somewhat  unruly, 
if  there  was  any  foundation  for  the  charge  brought  against 
Sir  Thomas  Cornwallis  in  1578  of  sharing  the  drunken 
banquetings  of  the  bishop's  servants,  and  his  turbulent 
diocese,  where  his  officers  were  constantly  opposed  in  their 
visitations,  it  is  small  wonder  that  even  before  this  catas- 
trophe Freake  had  begged  to  be  removed  to  a  quieter  sphere. 
"  No  comfort  (God  knowythe),"  he  wrote,  "  have  I  here,  but 
continuall  crossing  and  overthwarting  to  my  grat  grefe  and 
unquietnes,  nether  looke  I  for  any  better."  He  was 
translated  to  Worcester,  and  there  ended  his  days  in 
comparative  peace. 

It  does  not  appear  that  Freake  played  a  prominent  part 
in  the  great  doings  which  celebrated  Queen  Elizabeth's 
visit  to  Norwich  in  1578.  As  one  of  her  chaplains,  however, 
and  her  host — for  she  stayed  six  days  at  the  palace — he  must 
have  enjoyed  some  share  of  royal  favour,  and  seems  to  have 
taken  advantage  of  it  to  complain  of  certain  Norfolk  and 
Suffolk  gentry  who  encouraged  the  sectaries  against  him. 
His  influence  was  of  very  short  duration.  The  queen's 
progress  through  the  eastern  counties  was  hardly  over  when 
Sir  Thomas  Heneage  wrote  to  Walsingham  that  by  some 
good  means  Her  Majesty  had  been  brought  to  think  well  of 
the  zealous  and  loyal  gentlemen  against  whom  the  foolish 
bishop  had  tried  to  prejudice  her.  As  he  described  at  the 
same  time  how  the  lords  of  the  council  had  "straightened" 
certain  obstinate  persons  who  refused  to  come  to  church, 
it  is  clear  that  the  queen  also  disapproved  of  the  bishop's 


THE   PALACE    OF   NORWICH  231 

leniency  towards  the  recusants.  It  would  be  interesting  to 
know  how  Mrs.  Freake  fared  during  the  royal  visit.  Elizabeth, 
as  is  well  known,  could  hardly  bring  herself  to  tolerate  her 
bishops'  wives,  and  one  who  usurped  her  husband's  authority 
in  the  diocese  must  have  been  especially  obnoxious  to  her. 

Whatever  may  have  happened  within  the  palace  there  is 
no  doubt  that  without  it  this  August  week  was  a  season  of 
unmixed  rejoicings  and  festivities  which  were  long  remem- 
bered in  the  city.  A  century  later  Sir  Thomas  Browne, 
commenting  on  the  great  equipages  which  the  luxurious 
habits  of  his  contemporaries  required,  described  to  his  son 
how  in  the  summertime  of  1578  Elizabeth  came  on  horse- 
back by  the  high  road  from  Ipswich  to  Norwich  with  but  a 
coach  or  two  in  her  train  and  rode  through  the  city  to  the 
bishop's  palace,  where  she  stayed  a  week,  sometimes  going 
a-hunting  on  horseback  and  often  up  to  Mousehold  Hill  to 
see  wrestling  and  shooting.  Sir  Thomas  had  heard  many 
things  about  the  queen's  visit  from  an  aged  patient  of  his 
who  had  been  in  attendance  on  the  Earl  of  Leicester  at  the 
time ;  but  the  memory  of  the  pageants  and  shows  arranged 
in  her  honour  has  not  been  left  to  oral  tradition  alone.  One 
who,  besides  being  a  spectator,  took  some  part  in  their  pre- 
paration, and  judged  it  better  to  record  Elizabeth's  reception 
than  "  let  it  perish  in  three  halfpenie  pamphlets  and  so  die 
in  oblivion,"  wrote  a  detailed  description  of  the  triumph  and 
feasting,  telling  how  "  a  shew  of  some  strange  devise  "  was 
planned  for  each  day,  and  none  of  the  queen's  train  left 
unfeasted.  She  was  met  outside  the  city  by  the  mayor  and 
aldermen  and  a  company  of  the  most  comely  young  men  of 
Norwich  in  rich  apparel,  who  attended  her  to  St.  Stephen's 
Gate.  Here  there  were  brilliant  decorations  of  the  red  and 
white  rose  and  the  royal  arms,  and  the  city  waits  greeted 


232      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL   PALACES 

her  with  music.     Two  pageants  were  displayed  before  the 
queen  reached  the  cathedral,  whence   she   withdrew,  after 
service,  to   the  bishop's  palace.      It   was   a  Saturday,  and 
Elizabeth  seems  to  have  spent  most  of  the  Sunday  in  retire- 
ment.    Meantime,  the  organizer  of  the  city  festivities  was 
busy  arranging  pastimes  for  her  delectation.     On   Monday, 
however,  she  was  kept  indoors  by  bad  weather,  and  it  was 
not  till  the  late  afternoon  that  a  new  device  was  sent  before 
supper  to  the  palace  as  though  Mercury  had  come  from  the 
gods  to  request  Her  Majesty  to  go  abroad  and  behold  what 
was  planned  for   her  welcome.      He  drove  in  a  wonderful 
coach,    covered   with   birds    and   spirits  hanging   from   the 
clouds,  and  with  a  high  tower  in  its  centre  adorned  with 
gold  and  gay  jewels  and  a  fair  plume  of  white  feathers  on 
the  top.     His  own  dress  was  of  blue  satin,  lined  with  cloth 
of  gold,  and  slashed  in  the  most  approved  fashion,  and  his 
high-peaked  hat,   blue  also,  bore  a  pair  of  wings.      There 
were  wings,  too,  on  his  heels  and  on  his  golden  rod,  round 
which  two  serpents  writhed  as  if  they  were  alive.     When 
the  equipage  set  forth,  which  it  did  so  swiftly  that  the  horses 
seemed  to  fly,  the  people  followed  it  in  such  crowds  that  the 
Green   Yard   outside   the   palace  was  filled  to  overflowing. 
"  And  when  the  coche  approached  in  the  hearing  of  a  trumpet 
the  trumpetter  sounded,  and  so  came  in  to  the  greene  sound- 
ing, until  the  coche  was  full  placed  before  a  window  at  which 
the  queene  stood  and  might  be  plainelie  seene  and  openlie 
viewed.      When    Mercuric    had    espied   hir   highnesse,   he 
skipped  out  of  the  coch,  and,  being  on  the  ground,  gave  a 
jump  or  two  and  advanced  himself  in  such  a  sort  that  the 
queene  smiled  at  the  boldnesse  of  the  boie.     Thus  Mercurie, 
beholding  the  queene,  with  great  courage  and  audacitie  at 
the  length  bowed  downe  his  head  and    immediatlie   stood 


THE    PALACE   OF   NORWICH  233 


bolt  upright  and  shaked  his  rod,  and  so  began  his  speech 
with  a  most  assured  countenance."  He  was  both  well  heard 
and  well  received  by  the  queen  as  she  stood  at  one  of  the 
windows  of  the  "  great  chamber,"  which  is  now  the  drawing- 
room,  and  the  chronicler  adds,  in  evident  self-gratulation  to 
himself  and  his  fellow-players,  that  though  no  pageant  was 
looked  for  at  that  hour,  "yet  hap  was  so  good  and  the 
gratious  favour  of  the  prince  that  all  was  well  taken."  After 
that  wet  Monday  Elizabeth  spent  but  a  small  part  of  her 
time  in  the  palace.  There  were  other  pageants  for  her 
entertainment,  one  representing  Venus  and  Cupid  thrust 
from  heaven,  another  with  a  cave  and  twelve  water-nymphs, 
a  third  the  show  of  Manhood  and  Desert,  besides  presenta- 
tions, orations,  decorations,  and  a  masque  of  gods  and 
goddesses,  who  brought  her  gifts  after  supper  one  day. 
Altogether,  she  was  so  contented  with  her  reception  that 
when  she  rode  away  at  seven  o'clock  on  the  Friday  evening — 
the  hour  being  so  late  for  the  five-mile  journey  before  her 
that  the  mayor  had  to  forego  bis  speech  and  present  it  to 
her  in  writing — she  declared,  "  I  have  laid  up  in  my  heart 
such  good  will  as  I  shall  never  forget  Norwich,"  and  there- 
upon proceeding  forward  did  shake  her  riding  rod  and  said, 
"  Farewell,  Norwich,"  with  the  water  standing  in  her  eyes. 

Freake's  successor,  Bishop  Scambler,  who  had  earned  the 
reputation  of  a  shameless  spoiler  in  his  first  see  of  Peter- 
borough, was  hardly  more  scrupulous  in  his  dealings  with 
the  Norwich  revenues.  Apparently,  however — to  judge  from 
a  survey  made  in  October,  1594,  a  few  months  after  his 
death — he  left  the  palace  in  a  better  state  of  repair  than  some 
of  his  predecessors  had  done.  The  report  then  made  to  the 
queen's  auditor  by  carpenters,  masons,  glaziers,  and  other 
workmen  who  had  been  employed  in  the  house  names  each 


234      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

room  in  order,  beginning  with  those  which  adjoined  the 
cathedral.  It  is  interesting  to  compare  this  presumably 
exhaustive  survey  with  the  record  of  a  dilapidation  suit 
brought  forty  years  later  by  Bishop  White,  then  already 
translated  to  Ely,  against  the  representative  of  one  of  his 
predecessors,  Samuel  Harsnet.  In  the  later  document  only 
those  parts  of  the  palace  are  mentioned  for  the  repairs  of 
which  compensation  was  claimed.  The  Elizabethan  survey 
begins  with  the  middle  chamber  next  the  church,  probably 
the  little  chamber  next  the  pulpit  of  Bishop  White's  suit,  and 
a  higher  chamber  over  it.  The  title  of  the  principal  room  in 
the  next  group,  "  the  Lord  Cromwell's  chamber  so  called  of 
late,"  seems  to  be  the  sole  surviving  record  of  some  awe- 
inspiring  visit  of  Henry  VIII. 's  great  minister  to  the  bishop's 
palace  between  his  elevation  to  the  baronage  in  the  July  of 
1536  and  his  downfall  four  years  later.  In  connexion  with 
this  visit,  if  such  there  were — for  history  and  tradition  are 
alike  silent  on  the  point — it  is  noteworthy  that  in  1594  ^^ 
room  bore  the  name  of  the  great  queen  who  had  stayed  in 
the  palace  only  sixteen  years  before,  although  two  and  a  half 
centuries  later  "the  state-room"  was  known  to  Bishop 
Stanley's  family  as  the  apartment  in  which  Elizabeth  had 
slept.  The  Lord  Cromwell's  chamber  lay  between  a 
withdrawing-room  and  another  chamber,  and  is  followed  in 
the  category  by  a  green  parlour,  which  reappears  in  the  next 
century  as  the  green  chamber.  Amongst  other  rooms 
mentioned  in  both  documents  are  the  great  chamber  where 
Elizabeth  had  received  Mercury's  address  from  the  Green 
Yard,  the  hall,  and  the  study.  To  this  hall — certainly  not 
Bishop  Salmon's  great  hall,  which  the  Elizabethan  survey 
describes  as  already  in  ruins — there  were  entries  from  the 
green  parlour  and  the  great  chamber.   The  chamber  adjoining 


THE    PALACE    OF   NORWICH  235 

the  great  chamber  is  probably  the  room  which  Bishop 
Rugge  had  decorated  with  the  panelHng  from  St.  Benet's. 
Near  this  was  the  bishop's  chamber  and  withdrawing-room. 
The  dilapidation  suit  was  not  concerned  with  these  three 
apartments,  nor  with  the  armoury  which,  whatever  its  con- 
dition in  1594,  was  sparsely  enough  furnished  fifty  years 
later,  when  Bishop  Hall  owned  but  two  muskets  for  the 
defence  of  his  house.  On  the  other  hand,  the  wardrobe  and 
nursery  of  1634  have  no  place  in  the  Elizabethan  survey, 
though,  as  there  seems  to  be  no  record  of  fresh  building 
during  the  interval,  it  is  likely  enough  that  they  were  only 
old  rooms  bearing  new  names.  At  both  dates  the  palace  must 
have  had  its  complement  of  kitchen  offices,  pantry,  butteries, 
wine-cellars,  and  so  on,  though  these  are  only  enumerated 
in  full  in  the  survey.  From  this,  too,  comes  the  information 
that  there  were  four  chambers  in  the  galleries  for  the  serving- 
men,  a  "cha.pel  chamber"  on  the  backside  of  the  chapel,  and 
two  others  upstairs  next  the  chapel ;  that  the  steward  had 
his  own  set  of  apartments,  a  study  amongst  them;  and  that 
the  outbuildings  comprised  brewer}',  granary,  bake-house, 
mill,  coal,  fagot,  and  plumber's  houses,  besides  those  already 
mentioned  in  connexion  with  Bishop  Alnwick's  Gateway. 

The  depositions  of  Harsnet's  servants  and  certain  workmen 
employed  about  the  palace  show  that  the  bishop  had  from 
time  to  time  spent  a  considerable  amount  of  money  on  its 
repairs.  He,  too,  had  sued  his  predecessor's  executors  for 
dilapidations,  and  at  the  end  of  four  years,  when  his  costs 
had  amounted  to  ;^300,  was  awarded  ;r200.  To  an  uninitiated 
reader  the  claims  of  the  Bishop  of  Ely  do  not  appear 
altogether  reasonable.  They  were  chiefly  for  glass — this,  in 
some  cases,  for  windows  not  hitherto  glazed — and  leads, 
including  those  of  the  chapel  or  French   Church,  for  which 


236      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

the  bishop  had  not  been  responsible.  From  another  source 
we  learn  that  Harsnet  had  granted  the  keeper's  house  to  one 
Thomas  Fitton  with  a  fee  of  fourpence  a  day  for  keeping  the 
palace,  and  a  charge  was  made  for  the  repair  of  the  walls 
about  the  gardens  and  of  "  the  house  by  Mr.  Fitton's." 
Something  had  also  been  expended  on  the  leads  of  the  walk 
going  to  the  church,  so  that  Wakering's  Cloister  must  have 
been  still  in  use. 

Bishop  Harsnet,  who  "  kepte  residence  and  hospitalitie  " 
in  the  palace  "  all  the  time  it  was  fitt  for  his  place  and 
degree,"  was  an  earnest  and  devout  prelate,  but  too  moderate 
to  satisfy  either  party  in  the  Church.  With  the  Puritans  of 
Norwich  he  was  in  great  disfavour  for  putting  down  some  of 
the  lectureships  so  popular  at  that  time  in  his  diocese,  and 
for  which  there  was  a  special  endowment  in  the  city,  and 
they  brought  formal  accusations  against  him  in  Parliament 
both  on  this  account  and  for  his  insistence  on  ceremonial 
observances.  He  seems  to  have  suppressed  only  such 
lectures  as  interfered  with  attendance  at  church  services, 
but  as  Fuller  describes  him  as  a  *'  zealous  asserter  of  cere- 
monies," adding  that  he  was  the  first  to  complain  of 
"  conformable  Puritans,"  it  is  not  surprising  that  his  efforts 
to  enforce  ritual  made  him  unpopular  at  Norwich. 

It  was  during  the  episcopate  of  Bishop  White's  successor, 
Richard  Corbet,  that  Laud  determined  to  put  an  end  to  the 
occupation  of  the  palace  chapel  by  the  Walloons.  The 
bishop  accordingly  wrote  to  the  ministers :  "  You  have 
promised  me  from  time  to  time  to  restore  my  stolen  bell 
and  to  glaze  my  lettice  windows.  After  three  yeeres  con- 
sultation (bysides  other  pollution)  I  see  nothing  mended. 
Your  discipline,  I  know,  care  not  much  for  a  consecrated 
place,  and  anye  other  roome  in    Norwiche   that    hath    but 


THE    PALACE    OF   NORWICH  237 

bredth  and  length  may  serve  your  turn  as  well  as  the 
chappel :  wherefore  I  say  unto  you  without  a  miracle  Lazare 
prodi  foras.  Depart  and  hire  some  other  place  for  your 
irregular  meetings  :  you  shall  have  time  to  provide  for  your- 
selves betwixte  this  and  Whitsontide.  And  that  you  may 
not  think  I  mean  to  deale  with  you  as  Felix  dyd  with  St.  Paul, 
that  is,  make  you  afraid,  to  get  money,  I  shall  keepe  my 
word  with  you,  which  you  did  not  with  me,  and  as  neer  as  I 
can  be  like  you  in  nothinge.  Written  by  me,  Richard 
Norwich.  December  26,  1634."  On  the  receipt  of  this  whim- 
sical letter  the  Walloons  appealed  to  the  archbishop,  but  did 
not  succeed  in  shaking  his  resolution.  They  were  using  the 
chapel,  however,  when  Corbet  died  six  months  later,  and  the 
next  bishop,  Matthew  Wren,  found  them  still  in  possession, 
Laud  testifying  for  him  in  1636  that  he  had  spent  the 
summer  of  that  year  at  Ipswich  partly  because  his  presence 
was  required  in  that  part  of  his  diocese,  but  also  because 
the  chapel  at  his  house  in  Norwich  was  held  by  the  French 
congregation,  who  had  received  warning  to  quit  by  the 
following  Easter.  In  1637  they  took  their  departure,  paying, 
it  is  said,  only  twenty  nobles,  though  the  bishop  had  claimed 
;f  150  or  £200  for  dilapidations. 

Like  Bishop  Harsnet,  Corbet  had  not  shown  himself  dis- 
posed to  countenance  the  lectureships.  He  seems  to  have 
been  in  sympathy  with  Laud's  endeavours  to  enforce  stricter 
discipline,  especially  in  the  matter  of  residence.  At  Norwich, 
where  he  spent  only  three  years,  dying  whilst  still  in  middle 
life,  he  was  long  remembered  for  his  eloquent  preaching  and 
exuberant  wit.  Even  in  that  brief  time  the  jolly  doctor,  who 
had  sung  ballads  at  Abingdon  Cross  one  market  day  to  help 
an  unsuccessful  vendor,  drawing  together  a  great  audience 
by  the  charm  of  his  handsome  person  and  rare  full  voice, 


238      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

must  have  said  and  done  many  things  dehghtful  to  hear  and 
tell  of,  but  neither  in  Aubrey's  "  Brief  Lives  "  nor  in  a  longer 
memoir  is  any  incident  recorded  which  can  be  assigned  with 
certainty  to  this  period  of  his  life.  If,  however,  he  brought 
with  him  from  Oxford  his  favourite  chaplain — which  seems 
probable,  since  his  last  words  on  his  death-bed  in  Norwich 
were,  "  Good  night,  Lushington," — one  of  the  palace  wine- 
cellars  may  have  been  the  scene  of  some  merry-makings 
with  this  kindred  spirit.  A  man  of  a  generous  and  benevolent 
nature,  courteous,  sincere,  and  affectionate,  Corbet — even 
according  to  Aubrey,  who  chronicles  some  frolicsome  jests 
bordering  on  buffoonery — was  not  without  dignity  as  a  prelate. 
Among  his  contemporaries  he  was  best  known  as  the  friend 
of  Ben  Jonson,  as  himself  a  poet  of  no  inconsiderable  merit 
and  an  incomparable  wit  and  good  fellow. 

His  successor,  Wren,  according  to  Clarendon,  "  a  man  of 
a  severe,  sour  nature,  but  very  learned,"  was  impeached  before 
the  Long  Parliament  and  imprisoned  for  nearly  eighteen  years 
in  the  Tower  without  trial.  Though  he  had  been  translated 
to  Ely  in  1638,  when  he  had  been  Bishop  of  Norwich  less 
than  three  years,  most  of  the  charges  brought  against  him 
were  concerned  with  the  earlier  episcopate.  He  was  said  to 
have  suppressed  the  preaching  of  the  Word  of  God,  and 
introduced  many  superstitious  and  idolatrous  practices  into 
the  city,  besides  forcing  the  inhabitants  to  pay  two  shillings 
in  the  pound  of  their  rents  in  tithes.  There  was  probably 
more  foundation  for  the  accusation  that  he  had  driven 
3,000  of  the  king's  subjects  into  Holland  by  his  rigorous 
prosecution,  for  we  have  it  on  Clarendon's  authority  that 
many  of  the  Huguenots  in  his  diocese  left  the  kingdom 
on  account  of  the  harsh  treatment  they  experienced  at 
his  hands. 


THE    PALACE    OF    NORWICH         239 

Before  "Wren  came  to  Norwich  some  attempt  had  been 
made  to  increase  the  attendance  at  the  cathedral  sermon. 
This  was  preached  every  Sunday  morning,  during  the  winter 
months  in  the  cathedral  itself,  but  from  Easter  to  Michaelmas 
in  the  Green  Yard  west  of  the  palace,  which  now  forms  part 
of  its  gardens.  Here  through  a  doorway,  long  since  closed, 
in  the  north  aisle  of  the  nave,  the  congregation  adjourned 
after  prayers  to  listen  to  the  preacher  selected  by  their  bishop. 
Galleries  were  erected  along  the  walls  of  the  palace  and 
north  aisle  of  the  cathedral  for  the  mayor  and  aldermen,  with 
their  families  and  officers,  the  dean,  prebendaries,  and  other 
persons  of  rank,  whilst  the  rest  of  the  audience  stood  or  sat 
on  forms,  paying  a  halfpenny  or  penny  for  the  hire  of  their 
seats.  The  pulpit  described  by  Dean  Hassall  in  1631,  when 
it  had  been  lately  rebuilt,  and  he  was  proposing  to  decorate 
it  with  the  arms  of  the  king  and  some  of  his  nobility,  as  very 
like  St.  Paul's  Cross,  had  a  capacious  covering  of  lead  with  a 
cross  upon  it.  Probably  its  restoration  and  embellishment 
were  part  of  a  scheme  to  exalt  these  orthodox  sermons 
against  the  lectures  in  which  the  people  of  Norwich  took 
such  delight.  Four  years  later  a  royal  letter  addressed  to  the 
mayor  and  corporation  commanded  their  constant  attend- 
ance in  the  cathedral  or  Green  Yard  every  Sunday  morning, 
none  being  allowed  to  absent  himself  without  the  bishop's 
permission.  The  city  magnates  complied  with  the  king's 
mandate,  and  shortly  afterwards  refused  a  petition  for  new 
lectures  and  evening  readings  presented  by  their  fellow- 
citizens.  Not  many  years  later,  however,  some  at  least  of 
them  seem  to  have  assisted  at  the  sacrilegious  spoliation  of 
the  cathedral  by  the  Parliamentarians.  The  leaden  cross 
was  then  sawn  down  from  the  Green  Yard  pulpit  and 
burnt,  with  service-books,  vestments,  and  organ-pipes,  in  the 


240      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

market-place,  the  pulpit  itself  being  afterwards  removed  to 
the  New  Hall  Yard. 

Wren  was  not  the  only  Bishop  of  Norwich  who  suffered 
for  conscience'  sake  in  the  seventeenth  century.  The  scholar 
and  antiquary,  Richard  Montague,  who  came  after  him,  had 
already  been  the  object  of  the  relentless  attacks  of  the 
Parliaments  of  Charles  I.,  and  might  have  shared  the  same 
fate  had  he  not  escaped  his  accusers  by  a  timely  death,  going, 
as  Fuller  said,  "  a  more  compendious  way  to  answer  all  in  the 
high  court  of  heaven."  Their  rigid  discipline  and  enforce- 
ment of  ritual  had  earned  for  the  Laudian  bishops  the  hatred 
of  the  Puritans  in  many  parts  of  the  country,  but  when  the 
Parliament  triumphed,  in  Norwich,  at  least,  the  brunt  of  the 
storm  was  borne  by  one  who  had  done  little  or  nothing  to 
provoke  it.  In  his  first  diocese  of  Exeter,  Joseph  Hall  had 
more  than  once  found  it  difficult  to  clear  himself  from  the 
suspicion  of  showing  undue  favour  to  the  disaffected,  and  his 
wide  tolerance  and  large-hearted  charity  met  with  little 
sympathy  from  the  extremists  on  both  sides.  Moderate  men, 
however,  such  as  the  Earl  of  Essex,  who  had  a  great 
reverence  and  kindness  for  him,  seem  to  have  loved  him  as 
much  for  these  qualities  as  they  respected  his  holy  and 
consistent  life,  and  admired  his  genius  as  writer,  contro- 
versialist, and  preacher. 

The  events  which  followed  Bishop  Hall's  election  to  the 
see  of  Norwich  are  well  known  from  his  own  account.  He 
was  one  of  the  twelve  prelates  charged  with  high  treason  for 
protesting  against  the  validity  of  Acts  passed  during  their 
enforced  absence  from  the  House  of  Lords.  They  were 
committed  to  the  Tower  and  imprisoned  there  for  some 
months.  In  the  meantime  a  Bill  was  passed  for  the  forfeiture 
of  their  spiritual  and  temporal  estates,  out  of  which  an  annual 


THE    PALACE    OF   NORWICH  241 

allowance — in  Hall's  case  £400 — was  to  be  made  to  each.  On 
his  release  the  bishop  went  down  to  Norwich,  where  he  was 
received  with  more  cordiality  than  he  had  expected.  He 
took  up  his  abode  in  the  palace,  and  preached  the  next  day  to 
a  large  and  attentive  congregation.  The  story  of  his  subse- 
quent experiences  there,  written  in  his  own  vigorous  and 
simple  language,  has  been  often  quoted.  Notwithstanding 
some  murmuring  among  the  disaffected,  he  enjoyed  com- 
parative peace  until  the  ordinance  of  sequestration  was 
passed  about  eleven  months  after  his  arrival.  The  first  hint 
of  the  troubles  that  were  impending  seems  to  have  reached 
the  bishop  through  a  London  trooper  who  came  with  others 
in  his  company  to  the  palace  gates  very  early  one  morning, 
and  threatened  to  break  them  down  if  he  were  denied 
entrance.  Dr.  Hall  found  him  struggling  with  one  of  his 
servants  for  a  pistol,  and  "  demanded  his  business  at  that 
unseasonable  time.  He  told  me  he  came  to  search  for  arms 
and  ammunition  of  which  I  must  be  disarmed.  I  told  him  I 
had  only  two  muskets  in  the  house  and  no  other  military 
provision.  He,  not  resting  upon  my  word,  searched  round 
about  the  house,  looked  into  the  chests  and  trunks,  examined 
the  vessels  in  the  cellar.  Finding  no  other  warlike  furniture, 
he  asked  me  what  horses  I  had,  for  his  commission  was  to 
take  them  also.  I  told  him  how  poorly  I  was  stored  and  that 
my  age  would  not  allow  me  to  travel  on  foot.  In  conclusion, 
he  took  one  horse  for  the  present :  and  such  accompt  of 
another  that  he  did  highly  expostulate  with  me  afterwards 
that  I  had  otherwise  disposed  of  him."  After  this  came  the 
sequestrators  with  the  news  that  they  must  take  possession  of 
the  palace,  and  all  the  bishop's  estate,  both  real  and  personal. 
Certain  officers  sent  by  their  command  to  value  all  the  goods 
in  the  house,  performed  their  task  "  with  all  diligent  severity  ; 
E.E.P.  R 


242      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

not  leaving  so  much  as  a  dozen  of  trenchers,  or  my  children's 
pictures   out  of  their  curious  inventory.     Yea,  they  would 
have  apprised  our  very  wearing  clothes,  had  not  Alderman 
Tooley  and  Sheriff  Rawley,  to  whom  I  sent  to  require  their 
judgment  concerning  the  ordinance  in  this  point,   declared 
their  opinion  to  the  contrary."      Books  and  household  stuff 
were  exposed  for  sale,  and  but  for  the  compassion  of  a  gentle- 
woman of  Norwich  and  a  clergyman  in  the  diocese  who  came 
forward  to  advance  their  value,  would  have  been  all  lost  to 
the  bishop.     He  had  now  but  scanty  means  left  for  replacing 
even  the  barest  necessaries.      All  his  rents  had  been  stopped 
and  the  order  for  the  yearly  payment  of  ;£'400  remained  a  dead 
letter.     He  appealed  to  the  Parliamentarian  Committee  in  the 
city   who   promised   to   secure  him  the   pension  out  of  the 
manors  of  the  bishopric.      It  soon  became  evident,  however, 
that  the   commissioners   had  over-estimated   their   powers. 
An  order  of  inhibition  came  down  from  London,  and  the  sole 
concession  eventually  granted  was  a  tardy  allowance  to  Mrs. 
Hall   of  one   fifth  for  the  maintenance  of  herself  and  her 
family.     The  synodals  were  kept  back,  and  ordinations  and 
institutions  were  the  only  spiritual  profits  left  to  the  bishop. 
It  was  not  long  before  these  too  were  denied  him.     "  Certain 
forward  volunteers  in  the  city,"  having  stirred  up  the  mayor 
and  corporation  to  interfere,  "  divers  of  them  came  to  my  gate 
at  a  very  unseasonable  time,  and  knocking  very  vehemently, 
required  to  speak  with  the  bishop.     Messages  were  sent  to 
them  to  know  their  business  ;  nothing  would  satisfy  them  but 
the  bishop's  presence.     At  last  I  came  down  to  them  and 
demanded  what  the  matter  was :  they  would  have  the  gate 
opened,  and  then  they  would  tell   me.     I  answered  that  I 
would  know  them  better  first :  if  they  had  anything  to  say  to 
me,  I  was  ready  to  hear  them.      They  told  me  they  had  a 


THE    PALACE    OF    NORWICH         243 

writing  to  me  from  Mr.  Mayor  and  some  other  of  their 
magistrates.  The  paper  contained  both  a  challenge  of  me  for 
breaking  the  covenant,  in  ordaining  ministers,  and,  withal, 
required  me  to  give  in  the  names  of  those  which  were 
ordained  by  me  both  then  and  formerly  since  the  covenant. 
My  answer  was,  that  Mr.  Mayor  was  much  abused  by  those 
who  had  misinformed  him,  and  drawn  that  paper  from  him  ; 
that  I  would  the  next  day  give  a  full  answer  to  the  writing. 
They  moved  that  my  answer  might  be  by  my  personal  appear- 
ance at  the  Guildhall.  I  asked  them  when  they  ever  heard  of 
a  Bishop  of  Norwich  appearing  before  a  mayor.  I  knew  mine 
own  place,  and  would  take  that  way  of  answer  which  I  thought 
fit ;  and  so  dismissed  them,  who  had  given  out  that  day  that 
had  they  known  before  of  mine  ordaining,  they  would  have 
pulled  me  and  those  whom  I  had  ordained  out  of  the  chapel 
by  the  ears." 

Bishop  Lyhert's  sturdy  oaken  gates  stood  his  successor  in 
good  stead  on  more  than  one  occasion,  but  did  not  always 
avail  to  keep  out  the  Puritan  mob.  "  One  while,"  continues 
Bishop  Hall,  "  a  whole  rabble  of  volunteers  came  to  my 
gates  late,  when  they  were  locked  up,  and  called  for  the 
porter  to  give  them  entrance  ;  which  being  not  yielded,  they 
threatened  to  make  by  force ;  and  had  not  the  said  gates 
been  very  strong  they  had  done  it.  Others  of  them  clambered 
over  the  walls  and  would  come  into  my  house :  their  errand, 
they  said,  was  to  search  for  delinquents.  What  they  would 
have  done  I  know  not,  had  we  not  by  a  secret  way  sent  to 
raise  the  officers  for  our  rescue.  Another  while,  the  Sheriff 
Toftes  and  Alderman  Linsey  attended  with  many  zealous 
followers,  came  into  my  chapel  to  look  for  superstitious 
pictures  and  relics  of  idolatry,  and  sent  for  me  to  let  me 
know  they  found  those  windows  full  of  images  which  were 

R   2 


244      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

very  offensive  and  must  be  demolished.  I  told  them  they 
were  the  pictures  of  some  ancient  and  worthy  bishops,  as 
St.  Ambrose,  Austin,  etc.  It  was  answered  me  that  they 
were  so  many  popes,  and  one  younger  man  amongst  the  rest 
(Townsend,  as  I  perceived  afterwards)  would  take  on  him  to 
defend  that  every  diocesan  bishop  was  pope.  I  answered 
him  with  some  scorn,  and  obtained  leave  that  I  might,  with 
the  least  loss  and  defacing  of  the  windows,  give  order  for 
taking  off  that  offence,  which  I  did,  by  causing  the  heads  of 
those  pictures  to  be  taken  off  since  I  knew  the  bodies  could 
not  offend." 

For  a  short  time  after  the  desecration  of  the  cathedral  in 
June,  1644,  Bishop  Hall  was  suffered  to  remain  at  the  palace 
though  with  a  poor  retinue  and  means.  Miles  Corbet,  how- 
ever, at  whose  instance  the  grant  of  the  pension  had  been 
revoked,  thought  the  house  too  good  for  him  and  sent  many 
peremptory  messages  for  his  removal.  The  ostensible  pre- 
text was  that  the  palace  was  required  as  a  meeting-place  free 
of  cost  for  the  commissioners,  but  though  Mrs.  Hall  offered 
to  pay  the  rent  of  the  building  they  then  occupied  out  of  her 
fifth  it  was  of  no  avail,  the  bishop  and  his  family  were  driven 
out  and  might  have  had  no  lodging  but  the  street  had  not  a 
kindly  neighbour  in  the  close  lent  them  his  house.  From 
this  hospitable  refuge  they  afterwards  removed  to  the  small 
suburb  of  Heigham,  where  Dr.  Hall  spent  the  last  years  of 
his  life,  preaching,  whenever  the  opportunity  was  granted 
him,  in  the  Norwich  churches,  administering,  at  least  on  one 
occasion,  when  Simon  Patrick,  the  future  Bishop  of  Ely, 
came  to  him  with  two  other  fellows  of  his  college,  the  rite  of 
ordination  in  his  own  parlour,  and  still  practising  with  his 
straightened  means  the  munificent  charity  which  had  always 
characterized    him.      "A    Person    of    singularly    Humility, 


THE   PALACE   OF   NORWICH  245 

Patience  and  Piety,"  as  his  friend  and  physician,  Sir  Thomas 
Browne,  described  him;  "his  own  Works  are  the  best  Monu- 
ment and  Character  of  himself." 

Meanwhile  the  palace  came  into  the  hands  of  the  trustees 
appointed  by  the  Long  Parliament  to  deal  with  the  bishops' 
lands  and  was  sold,  with  its  site,  ground,  and  soil,  its  chapel, 
houses,  buildings,  courtyards,  and  orchards,  covering  in  all 
an  area  of  six  acres  and  two  roods,  to  John  Blackwell  in 
1647.  The  leads  and  material  of  all  the  buildings  were 
valued  at  ;^8oo,  the  site  itself  at  £"260.  Not  long  afterwards 
Captain  Blackwell  stripped  the  leads  from  palace  and 
chapel,  tore  the  casements  from  their  hinges  and  defaced 
both  buildings  in  other  ways.  The  hall  was  turned  into  a 
meeting-house  for  the  sectaries,  and  some  of  the  rooms  were 
let  out  as  tenements  to  poor  families. 

Dr.  Hall  did  not  live  to  see  the  Restoration.  When  in 
the  April  of  1662  Miles  Corbet,  suffering  on  the  scaffold  as  a 
regicide,  tasted  the  hard  measure  he  had  meted  out  to  others, 
the  palace  from  which  he  had  been  driven  was  in  other 
hands.  In  character  and  learning  Edward  Reynolds  was 
no  unworthy  successor  to  Bishop  Hall.  Sir  Thomas  Browne, 
who  knew  him  well,  described  him  as  "a  person  much  of  the 
temper  of  his  predecessor";  and  it  was  fortunate  for  the 
diocese  that  Baxter,  though  declining  a  bishopric  for  him- 
self, advised  Reynolds  to  accept  the  see.  As  one  of  the  lead- 
ing Presbyterians  he  had  been  a  member  of  the  Long  Parha- 
ment's  Assembly  of  Divines,  but  had  afterwards  undergone 
some  persecution  from  the  Independents.  Their  treatment, 
however,  did  not  make  him  intolerant,  and  the  fifteen  years 
of  his  mild  and  beneficent  rule  were  unstained  by  any  violent 
measures  against  the  Nonconformists. 

At  Norwich,  where  he  chiefly  resided,  he  found  the  palace 


246      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL   PALACES 

almost  in  ruins.  When  it  had  been  rendered  habitable  once 
more  he  proceeded  to  build  a  new  chapel  in  the  place  of 
Bishop  Salmon's,  which  was  now  quite  past  repair,  the  fabric 
itself  having  become  ruinous  and  useless  since  the  removal  of 
the  leads.  It  was  therefore  pulled  down,  and  some  of  the 
materials  were  used  in  the  erection  of  its  successor.  This, 
which  was  of  smaller  dimensions  and  fitted  up  with  wains- 
coted sides  and  stuccoed  flat  ceiling,  was  built  almost 
entirely  at  Reynolds's  expense.  Here  he  lies  buried,  and  his 
monument  at  the  east  end  faces  that  of  his  successor, 
Anthony  Sparrow. 

The  new  chapel  had  not  been  consecrated  when  Charles  II. 
came  to  Norwich  in  the  September  of  1671.  He  reached 
Trowse  Bridge  in  the  afternoon,  with  the  Dukes  of  York, 
Monmouth,  and  Buckingham  in  his  train,  whilst  the  queen 
travelled  later  by  a  different  route.  The  old  palace  of  the 
Dukes  of  Norfolk  in  the  heart  of  the  city,  according  to  a  con- 
temporary account  the  greatest  town-house  in  the  kingdom 
out  of  London,  had  been  richly  furnished  for  the  occasion, 
and  here  the  king  and  his  court  were  sumptuously  enter- 
tained by  Lord  Henry  Howard.  On  the  following  day 
Charles  went  to  the  cathedral,  whence,  says  a  Norwich 
gentleman  who  wrote  a  full  description  of  the  royal  visit  to  a 
friend,  "  he  retyred  out  of  the  Crowd  and  stept  into  the  Lord 
Bishop's  Palace  adjoyninge  to  refresh  himselfe  with  a  Glass 
of  choyce  wyne  and  sweetmeates,  atended  only  by  his  Roial 
Highnesse  the  Duke  of  Buckingham  and  ye  Lord  Howard." 
The  Duke  of  York  visited  Norwich  again  on  his  return  from 
Scotland,  nearly  ten  years  later,  in  the  midst  of  a  Tory 
reaction  against  the  Exclusion  Bill.  He  came  on  the  invita- 
tion of  the  city,  and  was  met  at  the  Bishop's  Gate  at  nine 
o'clock  in  the  evening  by  the  magistrates,  who  conducted 


THE    PALACE   OF   NORWICH  247 

him,  after  due  formalities,  to  the  New  Hall,  great  guns  firing, 
bells  ringing,  and  bonfires  blazing  meanwhile :  that  night  he 
was  lodged  at  the  bishop's  palace,  from  which  the  next 
morning  he  went  on  his  way  to  Newmarket. 

James's  host  on  this  occasion,  the  Royahst  bishop.  Sparrow, 
who,  like  Reynolds,  made  the  palace  his  home,  and  was  much 
loved  and  respected  in  Norwich,  did  not  long  survive  his 
accession.  Under  his  successor,  the  non-juror  Lloyd,  a  great 
change  came  over  the  sentiments  of  the  citizens.  On  the 
eve  of  the  Revolution  a  Protestant  Duke  of  Norfolk,  son  of 
the  Lord  Henry  Howard  who  had  entertained  Charles  H., 
rode  into  the  city  at  the  head  of  three  hundred  knights  and 
gentlemen,  and  declared  for  a  free  Parliament.  He  was 
welcomed  by  the  mayor  and  aldermen,  whilst  the  common 
people  evinced  their  approval  by  breaking  out  into  riots  in 
which  they  burned  the  furniture  of  a  new  Roman  Catholic 
chapel,  pillaged  the  houses  of  Papists,  and  threatened  finally 
to  plunder  the  bishop's  palace  and  the  dwellings  of  the 
principal  residents.  At  this  point,  however,  vigorous ' 
measures  were  adopted  to  check  their  depredations,  and 
the  palace  remained  untouched  by  violence  or  alteration 
until  the  first  half  of  the  following  century.  Considerable 
changes  were  made  during  that  period  by  Bishops  Trimnell 
and  Gooch,  On  his  arrival  at  Norwich  in  1738,  Bishop  Gooch 
repaired  and  beautified  the  palace  at  very  great  expense, 
adding  much  to  its  convenience,  we  are  told,  "  by  opening 
a  Way  on  the  North  Side  of  the  Church  out  of  the  Upper 
Close,  which  enabled  him,  with  the  consent  of  the  Dean  and 
Chapter,  not  only  to  set  aside  the  Passage  to  the  Palace 
through  the  Church,  but  to  shut  it  quite  up,  unless  in  the 
Time  of  Divine  Service,  preventing  thereby  that  scandalous 
but  common  practice  of  carrying  Burthens  of  all  kinds  thro' 


248      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL   PALACES 

it,  even  during  the  Performance  of  Service  therein."  It  does 
not  appear  that  Sir  Thomas  Gooch,  as  he  became  after  his 
translation  to  Ely,  spent  much  time  at  the  palace.  He  was 
master  of  Caius  College  and  lived  chiefly  at  Cambridge. 
Notwithstanding  his  non-residence  he  was  very  greatly 
beloved  in  the  diocese,  his  unconcealed  pursuit  of  preferment 
being  no  doubt  forgotten  in  the  charm  of  his  generous  and 
kindly  spirit,  lively  wit,  and  attractive  presence.  His  charity 
seems  to  have  been  almost  unbounded,  and  it  is  small  wonder 
that  he  left  Norwich  declaring  "that  he  was  not  a  farthing 
richer  since  he  was  a  bishop." 

Other  alterations  had  been  made  in  the  palace  before  1754 
when  the  Thetford  antiquary,  "  Honest  Tom  Martin,"  dined 
there  with  Bishop  Haytor,  whose  fine  new  large  hall  and 
other  improvements  and  embellishments,  both  in  the  house 
and  its  extensive  gardens,  seemed  "  surprizingly  beautifull" 
to  his  guest,  and  were  no  doubt  the  modern  buildings  which 
were  said,  fifty  years  later,  to  give  the  episcopal  residence 
the  appearance  rather  of  a  small  town  than  of  a  single 
dwelling. 

Some  memories  of  Bishop  Home,  the  earnest  and  devout 
commentator  on  the  Psalms,  still  linger  about  the  palace. 
He  was  in  faihng  health  when  he  came  to  Norwich,  and 
exclaimed  on  reaching  the  large  flight  of  steps  on  the  west 
front  by  which  the  house  was  then  entered:  "Alas,  I  am 
come  to  these  steps  at  a  time  of  life  when  I  can  neither  go 
up  them  nor  down  them  with  safety."  At  his  chaplain's 
instance  he  was  persuaded  to  walk  every  morning  in  the 
garden,  but  increasing  illness  soon  drove  him  from  the 
diocese,  and  he  died  at  Bath  eighteen  months  after  his 
consecration. 

Few  events  in  the  social  history  of  their  city  seem  to  have 


SiK  Thomas  Goocii,  Kishoi'  ok  Ki.v. 
From  an  c>i,i;ia7niig  hi  the  British  Miiscuiii, 


THE    PALACE   OF   NORWICH  249 


made  a  greater  impression  on  the  good  people  of  Norwich 
than  the  grand  ball  given  by  Mrs.  Manners-Sutton  in  honour 
of  the  young  Prince  William  of  Gloucester,  nephew  of 
George  III.,  who  came  here  in  1800.  The  splendour  of  the 
scene  and  the  gay  decorations  which  adorned  the  interior  of 
the  palace  eclipsed  all  earlier  memories,  and  when  Bishop 
Stanley  began  his  residence  thirty-seven  years  later  his  son 
wrote  that  the  only  associations  with  the  place  were  the 
examinations  for  ordination  and  "  an  enormous  ball."  Pos- 
sibly the  lavish  expenditure  necessitated  by  this  occasion, 
as  well  as  his  large  family  and  undoubted  liberality,  had 
something  to  do  with  the  pecuniary  difficulties  in  which 
Bishop  Manners-Sutton  was  involved  during  his  residence  at 
Norwich.  His  elevation  to  the  primacy  in  1805  was  followed 
by  the  election  of  one  who  was  known  for  many  years  as  the 
only  Liberal  bishop  in  the  House  of  Lords.  During  the 
twenty-two  years  of  his  episcopate  Bishop  Bathurst  never 
wavered  in  his  support  of  Catholic  emancipation,  sacrificing 
Court  favour,  and  every  chance  of  preferment,  to  this  cause. 
In  Norwich  his  lovable  disposition  and  urbane  manners 
rendered  him  popular  even  with  those  who  held  different 
views.  His  daughter  tells  a  story  of  how  a  certain  resident 
attacked  him  in  a  violent  letter,  but  was  so  disarmed  by  the 
temperate  reply  he  received  that  he  hastened  to  the  palace 
to  apologize.  Dr.  Bathurst's  acquaintance  with  "  Coke  of 
Norfolk,"  begun  before  his  promotion  to  Norwich,  was  there 
ripened  into  an  intimate  friendship,  and  he  was  a  frequent 
visitor  at  Holkham.  It  was  natural  that  his  staunch  support 
of  Liberal  measures  should  bring  him  into  close  association 
with  the  great  Norfolk  agriculturist  and  politician,  and  earn 
him  also  the  esteem  of  Charles  James  Fox,  who  vainly  urged 
his  translation  to  the  Archbishopric  of  Dublin  on  the  ground 


250      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL   PALACES 

that  he  was  "  the  only  tolerant  bishop."  Other  qualifications 
were  needed  to  attract  Elizabeth  Fry's  brother,  Joseph  John 
Gurney  of  Earlham.  In  1811  a  meeting  of  the  British  and 
Foreign  Bible  Society  was  held  in  Norwich,  and  the  bishop 
presided.  The  genuine  and  loving  sympathy  with  all  Christian 
workers  of  whatever  persuasion  which  he  then  evinced  seems 
to  have  won  him  the  affection  of  the  gentle  Quaker,  who 
wrote  to  him  nearly  twenty  years  later  :  "  For  many  years 
have  I  now  enjoyed  the  privilege  of  thy  friendship,  and  I  can 
truly  say  that  I  have  never  more  felt  the  value  and  pleasure 
of  it  than  during  our  late  intercourse." 

When  he  was  in  residence  at  Norwich  the  greater  part  of 
the  bishop's  days  were  devoted  to  diocesan  business,  the 
evenings  being  generally  passed  in  the  quiet  entertainment 
of  friends  and  sometimes  ending  in  a  rubber  of  whist.  He 
took  a  very  great  pleasure  in  the  palace  garden,  where  in 
the  early  summer  mornings  he  was  often  to  be  seen  wander- 
ing in  night-cap  and  dressing-gown  to  watch  the  progress  of 
his  blossoms  or  fruit.  It  was  here  that  Crabb  Robinson, 
then  on  circuit  in  Norwich  and  introduced  at  the  palace  by 
a  friend,  found  him  arm-in-arm  with  a  Roman  Catholic. 
The  bishop  laid  hold  of  him  too,  and  the  three  representa- 
tives of  the  Roman,Anglican,  and  Nonconformist  communions 
continued  their  walk  thus  linked  together.  Though  "  the 
Liberal  bishop "  was  out  of  favour  at  Court,  he,  like  his 
predecessor,  had  one  visitor  of  royal  birth.  The  Duke  of 
Sussex  came  to  the  city  in  the  autumn  of  1824  as  patron  of 
a  grand  musical  festival  for  the  benefit  of  the  hospital,  and 
spent  the  week  at  the  palace,  attending  all  the  concerts  and 
expressing  great  satisfaction  both  with  the  management  of 
the  festival  and  his  entertainment. 

For  the  last  few  years  of  his  life  Dr.  Bathurst  generally 


Dr.    IlAiiirKST,   HisHoi'  ok  Xokwk  ii. 

Frotit  a  firixt  in  the  Britisli  Mustiiin. 


THE    PALACE   OF   NORWICH  251 

lived  away  from  Norwich.  Dean  Stanley  records  that  when 
his  father  first  reached  the  palace  he  found  it  both  dreary 
and  dilapidated.  His  own  impressions  were  more  favourable. 
He  was  struck  with  its  size  rather  than  with  its  ugliness,  and 
described  it  as  a  sort  of  Moscow  amongst  houses,  containing 
very  fine  rooms  side  by  side  with  the  meanest  of  passages 
and  staircases.  "  The  dean's  room,"  a  small  low-ceiled  attic 
at  the  end  of  an  upstairs  passage  towards  the  cathedral, 
where  every  morning,  from  ten  to  one,  he  stood  working 
at  his  desk  by  the  fire-place,  was  destroyed  in  1858,  but  the 
passage  and  ante-room  which  led  to  it  still  remain. 

Under  Bishop  Stanley's  vigorous  administration  the  palace 
became   the   centre   of  many  activities,  social  and  philan- 
thropic as  well  as  diocesan.      "  A  bishop  should  always  be 
at  his  post  in  the  chief  city  of  his  diocese,"  was  his  answer 
to  the  proposal  that  he  should  live  outside  Norwich,  and  he 
made  the  city  his  peculiar  charge.     Visitors  of  all  sorts  and 
degrees — candidates  for  ordination,  rural  deans,  representa- 
tives of  different  societies — were  gathered  from  time  to  time 
under  his  hospitable  roof.     Here,  in  1843,  he  entertained  the 
Irish  priest.  Father  Mathew,  who  had  lately  converted  his 
country-people  to  temperance.     Another  guest  who    stayed 
twice  at  the  palace  was  the  famous  singer,  Jenny  Lind.     In 
the  early  years  of  his  episcopate  he  had  encountered  much 
opposition,  but  long  before  its  close  he  won  the  esteem   and 
affection  of  all  classes.      Eyewitnesses  describe  his  funeral 
as  one  of  the  most  impressive  sights  ever  beheld  in  Norwich 
Cathedral.     Every  place  of  business   in   the  city  had   been 
closed,  and  the  long  procession  of  clergy  and  citizens  which 
followed  his  coffin  moved  from  the  palace  to  the  Erpingham 
Gate  through  a  silent  crowd  of  20,000  spectators.     In  the 
church  itself  were  many  more  thousands,  all   in  mourning 


252      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

and  not  a  few  deeply  affected.  He  was  buried  in  the  centre 
of  the  nave,  according  to  his  own  wish  with  neither  tomb 
nor  effigy. 

Bishop  Stanley's  work  in  Norwich  was  that  of  an  organizer 
and  reformer  ;  he  was  not  one  of  her  building  prelates.  With 
the  exception  of  some  general  repairs  which  were  needed  to 
render  it  a  habitable  home  for  his  family  and  the  erection  of 
the  great  oriel  window  in  the  drawing-room  he  made  little 
change  in  the  palace.  During  the  episcopate  of  Bishop 
Pelham,  however,  it  underwent  extensive  alterations,  the 
north-west  corner  being  rebuilt  and  other  portions  entirely 
demolished.  The  most  ancient  part  of  the  building,  which 
had  always  been  united  to  the  cathedral,  was  pulled  down, 
and  in  the  opposite  direction  communication  between  the 
house  and  chapel  was  cut  off  by  the  removal  of  some  rooms 
and  a  staircase  at  the  east  end  of  the  great  dining-room. 
These  were  almost  in  ruins,  and  the  dining-room  itself  was 
so  unsafe  that  it  was  rebuilt,  the  old  room  at  the  east  end 
being  added  to  it.  The  chapel  which  Bishop  Stanley  had  found 
and  been  obliged  to  leave  "  a  wilderness  and  lumber-room  " 
was  entirely  restored  by  Bishop  Pelham,  and  for  about 
eighteen  years  used  as  the  church  of  the  parish  in  the  close 
called  St.  Mary-in-the-Marsh.  Since  that  time  Bishop 
Sheepshanks  has  connected  the  chapel  with  the  house  by  a 
new  passage  and  made  considerable  improvements  in  the 
interior.  The  fine  windows  which  Reynolds  had  rescued 
from  the  earlier  building  destroyed  by  the  Puritans,  are  still 
its  chief  beauty.  The  work  of  the  restorers  of  the  seven- 
teenth and  eighteenth  centuries  and  the  inevitable  changes 
wrought  by  time  and  neglect  have  made  the  house  itself  an 
irregular  building  with  few  architectural  merits  ;  but  though 
its   interest   lies  mainly  in  associations   with   the   different 


l-".i)\VAKi)  SiAM  i:v,    Uhiioi'  iiy  \(_iK\virii. 

From  a  print  in  the  liritish  Museum. 


THE    PALACE   OF   NORWICH  253 

prelates  who  lived  here  it  bears  even  now  a  certain  venerable 
and  picturesque  aspect. 

The  third  and  fourth  volumes  of  Blomefield's  History  of 
Norfolk  contain  many  scattered  references  to  the  bishop's 
palace.  For  its  founder,  Dean  Goulburn's  Life,  Letters  and 
Sermons  of  Bishop  Herbert  de  Losinga  and  Mr.  Beloe's  article 
in  the  Norfolk  Archceology  (vol.  viii.)  are  the  chief  authorities. 
Mr.  Harrod  described  his  excavations  in  the  palace  grounds 
in  vol.  vi.  of  the  same  journal,  and  an  account  of  St.  George's 
Gild  from  Mackarell's  unpublished  history  of  Norwich 
appeared  in  vol.  iii.  Much  general  information  is  to  be 
gathered  from  Dean  Goulburn's  ^wc/mi  Sculptures  of  Norwich 
Cathedral,  and  Dr.  Jessopp's  Diocese  of  Norwich.  In  the 
Norfolk  Antiquarian  Miscellany  (vols.  ii.  and  iii.)  and  Burns's 
History  of  Foreign  Protestant  Refoigees,  the  story  of  the  Walloon 
congregation  is  told.  Britton  described  Alnwick's  Gateway 
in  an  article  on  the  "  Ancient  Gate-houses  of  Norwich " 
(ArchcFological  Institute  Proceedings,  1847),  and  the  palace 
itself  in  his  History  of  Cathedral  Churches,  whilst  the  Journal 
of  the  British  Archceological  Association  (vol.  xiv.)  also  con- 
tains a  brief  account.  The  principal  authorities  for  the  six- 
teenth and  seventeenth  century  bishops  are :  Lives  of  the 
Elizabethan  Bishops,  by  the  Rev.  F.  O.  White;  Parker's 
Correspondence,  Strype's  Annals  and  Life  of  Parker,  Octavius 
Gilchrist's  memoir  of  Corbet,  Bishop  Hall's  Hard  Measure 
and  his  life,  by  the  Rev.  John  Jones;  Christopher  Wren's 
Parentalia,  Sir  Thomas  Browne's  Repertorium,  Chalmers's 
memoir  of  Bishop  Reynolds,  Acts  of  the  Privy  Council,  and 
Calendar  of  State  Papers.  More  recent  lives  are  those  of 
Bishop  Bathurst  by  his  daughter  Mrs.  Thistlethwayte ; 
of  Dean  Stanley,  by  Prothero,  and  of  Bishop  Stanley,  by  the 
dean.     At  the  Public  Record  Office  the  following  documents 


254      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL   PALACES 

bear  on  this  subject :  Pat.  2  Edw.  VI.,  pt.  6,  m.  8  ;  Close 
23  Chas.  I.,  pt.  3,  No.  27;  Exch.  Spec.  Com.  Norf.  38  Eliz., 
No.  1607;  State  Papers  Domestic,  Chas.  I.,  Vol.  70,  No.  67, 
and  the  Chancery  Guild  Certificate,  No.  29.  The  add.  MSS. 
5828  and  27967,  in  the  British  Museum,  give  some  details 
about  Sir  Thomas  Gooch,  and  the  visit  of  Charles  II.,  and 
Freake's  letter  praying  for  his  removal  is  preserved  in  Lans- 
down  MS.  38.  A  contemporary  account  of  Elizabeth's  visit 
is  incorporated  in  a  later  edition  of  Holinshed's  Chronicle. 


t^t  ^aface  of  geireforb 


IYING  between  the  city  and  the  open  country, 
protected  on  the  one  side  by  the  windings  of  the 
^  Wye,  on  the  other  by  the  towering  pile  of  the 
cathedral,  the  palace  of  Hereford  carries  with  it 
a  sense  of  quiet  yet  strenuous  life,  of  leisure  that  is  only  rest, 
and  of  a  beauty  grown  to  its  height  after  many  years. 

The  palace  lies  built  round  three  sides  of  a  square,  open  to 
the  sun  and  the  river  on  the  south,  with  stables  and  low  red 
kitchens  on  the  west  and  north,  and  on  the  east  with  the 
ancient  Norman  hall,  the  curia  episcopi,  as  it  was  called.  And 
the  palace  is  a  true  manor-house,  not  isolated  or  remote,  but 
essentially  at  one  with  the  people  who  live  not  a  stone's 
throw  from  the  gate. 

Ancient  as  is  the  see  of  Hereford,  little  has  been  preserved 
to  tell  us  of  its  lands  before  the  Conquest,  nor  do  we  know  by 
whom  the  present  site  of  the  cathedral  was  given  to  the 
Church.  A  tradition  points  to  Milfrid,  King  of  Mercia,  as 
the  donor  of  much  land  round  the  city  ;  but  Canon  Capes,  in 
his  introduction  to  the  printed  volume  of  "  Charters  and 
Records  of  Hereford  Cathedral,"  declares  that  it  is  impossible 
to  distinguish  earlier  gifts  from  those  which  Offa  is  said  to 
have  made  in  expiation  of  his  murder  of  the  saintly 
Ethelbert,  King  of  East  Anglia.  The  reason  of  this  silence 
of  the  past  must  be  sought  in  the  peculiar  position,  and 
consequently    history,    of    the    county.       Throughout     the 


256      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL   PALACES 

centuries  it  has  been  a  borderland  ;  all  through  the  Middle 
Ages  just  beyond  it  dwelt  the  Welsh,  whose  race-hatred 
for  the  Englishmen,  their  invaders  and  neighbours,  was 
heightened  and  sharpened  by  a  hunger  for  the  good  things 
of  the  plain.  From  this  they  were  geographically  divided 
only  by  the  Wye,  west  of  which  the  land  was  always  in 
debate,  held  indeed  nominally  by  Englishmen,  but  subject 
not  merely  to  raids,  but  to  immemorial  customs  and  incidents 
of  tenure  which  marked  it  off  distinctly  from  the  rest  of  the 
shire.  Hereford,  built  on  the  banks  of  the  Wye,  was  there- 
fore not  merely  the  chief  town  of  a  county,  but  was  also 
essentially  an  outpost  and  a  bulwark  of  defence  for  the 
fertile  lands  around,  and  to  this  its  character  it  owes  its 
distinctive  story.  One  of  the  first  events  known  in  its 
history  was  its  harrying  in  1055  by  the  Welsh,  under 
Gruffydd  ab  Llywelyn,  when  the  citadel  was  destroyed  as 
well  as  the  cathedral  but  newly  erected  by  Bishop  Ethelbert. 
A  punitive  expedition  under  Earl  Harold  followed,  and 
Hereford  was  fortified  with  a  rampart  and  ditch,  and  later 
with  a  stone  wall.  The  castle  was  first  built  by  Earl 
William  in  1055,  its  wooden  tower,  stockade,  and  ditch  being 
the  precursor  of  the  castle  which  was  dismantled  at  the  close 
of  the  seventeenth  century. 

In  all  the  fighting  the  bishop  must  have  played  his  part, 
for  he  was  not  only  a  bishop  but  a  great  temporal  lord,  head 
of  a  barony,  with  a  special  care  for  the  marches  ;  the  tem- 
poral aspect  of  his  rule  was  particularly  emphasized  in 
Hereford,  where  the  palace  was  the  head  of  a  distinct 
lordship  or  fee. 

The  earliest  evidence  of  the  existence  of  a  palace  is 
architectural  rather  than  documentary,  and  it  is  impossible 
to  assign  an  exact  date  to  the  remains  of  what  Mr.  Francis 


THE    PALACE    OF   HEREFORD         257 

Bond,  in  his  "  Gothic  Architecture  in  England,"  has  charac- 
terized as  one  of  the  oldest  and  the  best  preserved  of  the 
Norman  roofs  in  this  country.     Originally  this  roof  covered 
a  great  hall  running  north  and  south,  and  at  a  distance  of 
perhaps  a  hundred  yards  from  the  south  wall  of  the  cathedral. 
The   hall  itself  was  a  hundred  feet  long  and  fifty-five  feet 
wide,  forming    a   magnificent   space    for    a  great   assembly 
either  at  a  banquet,  court,  or  one  of  those  musters  which 
must  so  often  have  met  within  its  walls  when  the  Welsh  had 
exceeded  their  lawful  bounds.     There  are  still  great  woods  in 
Herefordshire,  but  they  were  much  greater  in  extent   then 
than  now  ;  perhaps  it  was  in  the  Forest  of  Dene,  where  the 
oak  still  flourishes,  that  the  bishop  obtained  the  timber  for  his 
hall.     Huge  trees  they  must  have  been,  for  only  heart  of  oak 
can  be  seen,  and  the  planks  used  must  have  been,  as  Mr. 
Havigal  has  estimated,   16   feet  long,  2  feet  thick,  and  at 
least  4  feet  6  inches   wide.      Like  most   domestic  halls  of 
early  date  the   plan  adopted  was    that  which  the  builders 
of  churches   used,  and  the  space  was    divided    into    three 
portions,  consisting  of  a  nave  23  feet  wide,  flanked  on  either 
side    by  aisles,  each  of    which    was    16   feet    broad.      The 
columns  of  the  aisles  were  formed  by  the  giant  oak  planks, 
cut  square  with  a  circular  projection  on  each  side,  running 
upward  above  men's  heads  to  12  feet  from  the  floor,  where  they 
ended  in  carved  capitals.     The  side  arches,  which  supported 
the  roof  of  the  aisles,  sprang  likewise  from  such  capitals  at 
16  feet  from  the  ground,  while  the  arches  of  the  central 
nave  sprang  from  capitals  23  feet  up  the  wall.     Such  was 
the  splendid  hall  which  men  saw  rise  at  least  seven  hundred 
years  ago,  and  which  still  shelters  part  of  the  present  palace. 
There   must,  of  course,  have  been  other  buildings  attached 
to  serve  as  kitchens,  offices,  or  stables,  but   the  only  other 
E.E.P.  S 


258      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

part  of  the  palace  of  which  we  have  certain  knowledge  is 
the  chapel. 

The   hall  has  been   attributed,  with   what   reason  is  not 
evident,  to  Gilbert  Foliot,  the  remarkable  man  who  became 
Bishop   of    Hereford    in    1148.       The   full   strength   of  his 
character  and  influence  only  became  known  in  1162,  when 
he  opposed  the   election    of    Becket,    though    the    private 
relations  of  the  two  men  were  not  unfriendly.     It  has  been 
suggested  that  to  him  rather  than  to  William  Fitz  Stephen 
is  due  the  credit  of  the  remark  that  the  king  had  wrought 
a  miracle  in  turning  a  secular  man  and    a  soldier  into  an 
archbishop.      Foliot    had    held    the    bishopric   for   sixteen 
years  when,  in  1163,  he  was  translated  to  London.     A  few 
instruments  of  his  still  survive,  among  them  being  a  grant 
to  his  canon,  Ranulf,  of  the  land  which  his  father,  Erkomar, 
had  held  as  far  back  as  the  time  of  Richard,  bishop  from  1121 
to  1131.     The  house  on  it  was  small,  so  small  that  Gilbert 
Foliot  enlarged  the  holding  by  adding  to  it  a  second  house 
near  at  hand,  but  to  it  was  annexed  land  in  "  Cocedale  " 
and  an  orchard  in  the  Barton,  or  farm-ground,  west  of  what 
is   now    Bridge    Street.     Robert   de    Melun,    the   successor 
of  Gilbert    Foliot,  held  the  see  but  for  four  years,  and  on 
his   death,  licence  of   election  was  refused  by  Henry  II., 
whose  obstinacy  had  been  thoroughly  aroused  by  his  experi- 
ences with    Becket.      Among  the  chancellor's  followers  in 
1 151  had  been  Robert  Foliot,  a  connection  of  the  previous 
Bishop  of  Hereford ;  but  although  Robert  was  so  high  in 
Becket's   favour   that   he   was   given    the   Archdeaconry  of 
Oxford,   he   was    in    such   close   touch    with    the    opposite 
party   that  he   exchanged  affectionate  letters   with    Gilbert 
Foliot,    even    when    that    bishop    lay    under    the    excom- 
munication of  Becket.     It  was,  perhaps,  as  a  result  of  this 


THE  PALACE  OF  HEREFORD    259 

friendship  that  in  1155  Robert  FoHot  was  chosen  to  fill  the 
newly  founded  Prebend  of  Wellington  in  Hereford  Cathedral, 
and  it  may  have  been  due  to  the  same  influence  that  Henry 
was  persuaded  to  give  way  in  favour  of  Foliot,  who  was 
appointed  as  Bishop  of  Hereford  in  1167  though  he  was  not 
consecrated  until  1174.  As  a  bishop  Robert  Foliot  showed 
himself  very  active,  and  he  did  much  to  enrich  his  cathedral 
by  gifts  of  all  kinds,  not  merely  of  ornaments,  vessels,  and 
books,  but  of  land.  But  although  these  gifts  are  mentioned 
there  seems  no  reason  to  assign  to  him  the  building  of  the 
palace  hall,  which  has  been  ascribed  to  his  episcopacy. 
More  probably  the  building  was  the  work  of  his  successor, 
William  de  Vere,  who  was  consecrated  to  the  see  in  1186, 
and  held  it  until  his  death  in  1200.  The  documentary 
evidence  in  his  favour  is  almost  negative  in  character,  or 
perhaps  it  can  best  be  described  as  circumstantial.  For  the 
present  purpose  one  of  his  most  important  steps  was  the 
purchase  of  the  piece  of  land  once  held  by  Ranulf,  son  of 
Erkomar,  that  same  Ranulf  whom  Gilbert  Foliot  had  styled 
"  his  canon,"  perhaps  being,  as  Canon  Capes  suggests,  his 
penitentiary.  This  Ranulf  was  succeeded  by  a  son  of  the 
same  name,  who  sold  his  holding  to  the  bishop,  his  feudal 
lord.  The  land  was  given  by  the  bishop  to  God,  the  Blessed 
Mary  the  Virgin,  and  to  the  Chapter  of  Hereford  and  is 
described  as  all  that  land  before  our  door  at  Hereford 
which  once  belonged  to  Ranulf  son  of  Erkomar  and 
afterwards  to  Ranulf  his  son.  The  grant  is  important  as 
showing  that  a  portion  of  the  land  of  the  church  was  already 
set  apart  for  the  dwelling-place  of  the  bishop,  and  that  the 
dwelling-house  was  such  as  to  be  regularly  defended  by  a  great 
door  or  gateway,  the  ancestor  of  the  picturesque  entrance  of 
the    present    day.      It   may  well   be  that  William  de  Vere 

S   2 


26o      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL   PALACES 

erected  the  hall,  for  his  love  for  architecture  was  great,  and 
the  cathedral  long  bore  marks  of  his  rule  in  the  alterations 
and  additions  he  made  to  the  older  fabric  throughout  the 
eastern  portion  of  the  church. 

Of  the  history  of  the  palace  during  the  thirty  or  forty 
years  following  the  death  of  William  de  Vere  we  know  little  or 
nothing,  and  his  successors,  Giles  de  Bruce,  Hugh  de  Mapenore, 
and  Hugh  Fohot,  are  scarcely  more  than  names.  Even  Ralph 
Maidstone,  who  succeeded  them  and  became  bishop  in  1234, 
left  little  permanent  mark  on  the  history  of  the  see,  though 
he  benefited  the  estates  by  the  purchase  of  that  house  in 
Fish  Street  which  became  the  London  residence  of  his  succes- 
sors. Devout  and  weary  of  the  world,  he  only  remained 
bishop  until  December  1239,  when  he  resigned  and  entered 
the  Gloucester  house  of  the  Franciscans,  where  he  died.  The 
canons  of  Hereford  thought  of  him  with  gratitude,  and  on 
each  27th  of  December,  as  the  years  passed  by,  they  remem- 
bered him  at  Mass,  for  had  he  not  given  to  his  cathedral 
church  two  antiphonaries,  with  a  Psalter,  a  gradual,  and  two 
volumes  of  the  Golden  Legend,  not  to  speak  of  other  things  ? 

The  vacancy  in  the  see  supplied  Henry  III.  with  the 
chance  of  rewarding  one  Peter  de  Aigueblanche,  whom  he 
was  anxious  to  serve  ;  in  1240  the  king  succeeded  in  his 
efforts  to  procure  the  see  for  his  friend,  and  Peter  was  con- 
secrated bishop  at  St.  Paul's  in  December  of  that  year. 
Peter  de  Aigueblanche,  was  one  of  those  Savoyards  intro- 
duced by  the  king's  marriage  with  Eleanor  of  Provence. 
His  whole  time  was  spent  at  the  Court,  the  business  of  his 
diocese  being  transacted  by  officials,  among  whom  the  most 
hated  was  his  financial  agent,  Bernard,  Prior  of  Champagne. 
As  the  years  passed  and  nothing  was  seen  of  the  bishop, 
though    promotions   were    given   to    his    foreign    relations, 


THE  PALACE  OF  HEREFORD    261 

discontent  became  as  rife  among  the   English  canons  and 
tenants  at  Hereford  as  among  the  Enghsh  nobles  at  the  Court. 
In  spite  of  a  temporary  breach  with  Henry  HI.,  caused  by  the 
bishop  aiding  Boniface  in  protecting  WilUam  de  Raleigh, 
Bishop  of  Winchester,   against   the  king,    Peter  continued 
an  ally  of  the  Royalist  party  in  the  Barons'  War  which  now 
broke  out.     At  Hereford  the  struggle  had  tragic  results,  for 
it  gave  the  English  party  courage  to  attack  the  foreigners 
whom  Peter  had  appointed.     Party  feeling  had  no  reverence 
for  sacred  buildings,  and  one  of  the  first  warnings  of  the 
coming  storm  was  heard  on  the  day  when  Robert  de  Bosbury 
dragged  Peter  de  Langon,  a  Savoyard  prebendary,  from  his 
stall.     The  natural  result  of  this  was  increased  rancour  on 
both  sides,  and  the  French  officials  of  the  bishop  must  have 
soon  realized  that  they  carried  their  lives  in  their  hands. 
How  true  was  this  was  proved  soon  afterwards.     Bernard, 
Prior  of  Champagne,  went  one  morning  to  his  Mass  in  the 
little  chapel  of  St.  Mary  Magdalene  just  without  the  great 
hall  of  the  palace,  which  it  served.     It  must  have  been  dark 
in   there,  for   the   windows   were   ancient    and   very  small. 
Nor  was  there  any  way  of  escape  through   the  chapel  of 
St.    Catherine  beneath.      St.    Mary    Magdalene's    was    not 
unfrequented,  for  tenants  of  the  fee  would  worship  there  as 
well  as  those  from  the  palace  hard  by,  and  Bernard  could 
have  thought  nothing  of  the  presence  of  John  de  Frome, 
although  he  was  not  of  the  bishop's  household.     The  prior 
turned  as  he  did  his  service,  and  John  sprang  on  him.     "A 
second  St.  Thomas,"  some  must  have  thought  as  they  saw 
the  prior  lying  there  hacked  to  his  death;  but  most  rejoiced, 
and  the  news  spread  abroad  that  at  Hereford,  at  least,  there 
was  one  fewer  of  the  pestilent  foreign  brood.    John  de  Frome 
was  seized  and  haled  to  prison  by  the  king's  officers ;  as  he 


262      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

was  reputed  a  clerk,  Bishop  Peter  claimed  him  for  his  own 
dungeon,  but  no  sign  of  tonsure  was  found  on  him,  so  the 
royal  officers  had  him  again.  A  wretched  prisoner,  he  was 
hurried  off  to  London,  where  his  friends  induced  the  Bishop 
of  London  to  claim  him  as  a  cleric  once  more,  and  Peter  de 
Aigueblanche  also  desired  his  custody.  The  officials  were 
utterly  puzzled;  the  crime  was  notorious;  John's  clerkship 
doubtful,  but  his  friends  very  powerful ;  and  the  question  was 
carried  to  Henry  IIL  far  away  in  Gascony.  He  was  equally 
perplexed,  and  the  last  mention  of  John  is  to  be  found  in  the 
royal  order  that  he  is  to  be  handed  over  to  the  officer  of  the 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury  who  is  to  keep  him  in  ward  until 
some  settlement  of  the  question  could  be  made.  John  de 
Frome  was  probably  anxious  to  escape  the  prison  of  the 
Bishop  of  Hereford,  for  Peter  felt  much  sorrow  for  the  death 
of  his  trusted  clerk.  His  punishment  of  the  canons  was 
characteristic  of  the  age,  for  in  1256  he  bought  certain  lands 
in  the  neighbouring  village  of  Holme  Lacy  from  Craswell 
Priory  and  vested  them  in  the  dean  and  chapter  for  the  good 
of  his  own  soul,  and  the  souls  of  the  other  bishops  of  his 
diocese,  and  of  Bernard,  Prior  of  Champagne  and  others, 
conditional  on  the  distribution  of  certain  doles  of  corn  to  the 
poor.  Possibly  even  this  transaction  was  carried  out  without 
Peter  having  visited  Hereford,  for  in  1263  the  cathedral  was 
in  a  condition  of  such  laxity  on  the  part  of  the  canons  as  can 
only  have  arisen  after  many  year's  neglect  by  their  visitor. 
At  the  end  of  May  in  that  year  Henry  HL  visited  the  city. 
He  was  doubtless  surprised  on  his  entry  into  the  city  to  be 
received  by  no  procession  of  great  ecclesiastics  bearing  relic 
and  cross  and  decked  with  all  that  pomp  of  colour  and  rich- 
ness which  he  loved.  Inquiries  as  to  their  absence  mingled 
with  his  discussions  of  the  strength  of  the  castle,  and  the 


THE  PALACE  OF  HEREFORD    263 

king  learnt  with  something  hke  horror  that  not  merely  was 
the  bishop  unknown  there,  but  that  no  vicar  of  his  or  dean 
was  to  be  found ;  moreover  the  great  cathedral,  once  wont  to 
shed  forth  delights,  was  now  silent,  for  the  canons  who 
ought  to  serve  there  day  and  night  had  gone  their  ways  into 
far-off  parts.  The  king  was  full  of  a  righteous  anger  that 
third  day  of  June  when  he  called  to  him  a  clerk  ;  stern  were 
the  words  dictated:  "Shepherds,"  the  king  wrote,  "are  set 
over  their  flocks  to  keep  watch  over  them  day  and  night " ; 
but  Peter  had  betrayed  his  trust,  for  he  had  left  his  sheep  all 
unprotected  and  unfed.  But  though  the  offence  was  spiritual 
Peter  was  also  a  temporal  lord,  and  Henry  intimated  in 
plain  terms  that  unless  he  returned  to  his  duties  and  his 
diocese  he  would  take  the  temporalities  into  his  own  hands. 
Henry  did  well  to  be  angry  at  the  bishop's  neglect,  but  pro- 
bably his  feelings  were  also  influenced  by  considerations  of 
his  own  interest,  for  it  was  important  that  the  bishop  should 
be  able  to  bring  to  Henry's  aid  the  whole  force  of  his  barony. 
The  remonstrance  had  its  effect,  and  Peter  took  up  his  resi- 
dence in  his  cathedral  city.  The  Barons'  War  was  now  at  its 
height,  and  Peter  was  still  recognized  as  one  of  the  leaders  of 
the  royal  party.  So  influential  was  he  that  the  barons 
deemed  it  desirable  to  put  a  term  to  his  plans  and  counsels, 
and  a  daring  plot  was  devised.  The  bishop  received  warning 
and,  partly  for  sanctuary,  partly  for  greater  safety  since  the 
palace  does  not  seem  to  have  been  fortified,  he  betook  him- 
self to  the  cathedral  one  day  in  May,  1263.  Here  he  stood 
a  regular  siege,  but  at  length  an  entrance  was  made,  and  the 
baronial  party  rushed  in.  Thomas  Turbeville  made  for  the 
bishop  and,  as  Robert  of  Gloucester  says,  "harlede  him  out  of 
church";  in  the  meanwhile  the  Savoyard  canons  had  been 
secured.     With  the  bishop  prisoner  the  palace  soon  fell  into 


264      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

the  raiders'  hands,  and  Peter's  treasure  was  confiscated. 
The  barons  then  rode  off  with  their  captives,  whom  they 
lodged  in  Roger  de  CHfford's  castle  of  Eardisley.  It  was  not 
until  September  that  they  were  released,  and  then  Peter 
went  abroad,  where  he  remained  until  his  death  in  1268. 

In  1269  John  le  Breton  became  bishop,  and  held  the  see 
until  he  died  in  1275,  leaving  his  episcopal  lands  and  manors 
in  a  state  of  great  dilapidation  and  neglect.  Among  the 
canons  of  Hereford  was  Thomas  de  Cantelupe.  He  owed 
his  position,  in  some  measure,  to  family  influence,  for  his 
father  was  William,  second  baron  of  that  name,  and  his 
uncle  was  Walter  de  Cantelupe,  Bishop  of  Worcester,  and  a 
great  friend  of  Simon  de  Montfort.  Educated  at  Oxford  and 
Paris  he  was  a  chaplain  to  Innocent  IV.,  and  in  1262  was 
elected  as  Chancellor  of  Oxford.  There  he  made  a  reputa- 
tion for  legal  knowledge,  and  in  1265  he  was  made  Chan- 
cellor of  England  under  the  baronial  party.  This  promotion 
he  lost  after  the  Battle  of  Evesham,  when  he  thought  it 
advisable  to  retire  to  Paris  and  abandon  the  law  for  theology. 
In  1266  he  was  back  in  England  and  in  favour  with  Henry  III. 
who  offered  no  resistance  to  his  election  to  the  see  of  Hereford 
in  1275 ;  later  he  was  one  of  the  most  trusted  of  all  those  able 
ministers  whom  Edward  I.  gathered  round  him  for  his 
service.  Very  different  was  his  sway  in  the  diocese  to  that 
of  his  predecessors;  everywhere  active,  he  wrought  many 
reforms  and  brought  the  organization  into  good  order.  It  is 
significant  that  his  register  is  the  earliest  one  surviving  for 
this  diocese.  The  episcopal  manors  also  came  in  for  their 
share  of  attention,  and  he  insisted  on  his  bailiffs  rendering 
regular  account.  He  does  not  seem  to  have  passed  much 
time  at  his  palace,  and  it  has  been  even  doubted  whether  he 
kept  it  in  such  state  as  would  enable  him  to  use  it.     He  was, 


THE  PALACE  OF  HEREFORD    265 

however,  careful  to  maintain  the  rights  of  his  fee  against  the 
encroachments  of  the  city,  just  as  he  vindicated  the  rights  of 
the  Church  in  more  general  matters,  thus  bringing  on  himself 
excommunication  by  Peckham.  His  quarrel  with  the  arch- 
bishop sent  him  to  Orvieto  where  Martin  IV.  was  then  living, 
and  there  Cantelupe  died  in  1282,  in  the  presence  of  his 
friend  Richard  de  Swinfield. 

Of  the  early  life  of  this  man  we  know  little,  but  the  first 
notice  of  him  which  has  come  down  to  us  connects  his  name 
with  Thomas  de  Cantelupe,  whose  service  he  entered  as 
chaplain.  Naturally  tactful,  painstaking,  and  gentle,  he  was 
for  eighteen  years  his  master's  secretary,  agent,  and  friend. 
His  position  brought  with  it  certain  ecclesiastical  preferments, 
and  in  1277  Cantelupe  gave  him  a  prebend  in  Hereford 
Cathedral.  This  was  followed,  before  1280,  by  the  Chancellor- 
ship of  Lincoln,  and  in  1281 — 2  by  the  Prebend  of  St.  Pancras 
in  St.  Paul's.  His  knowledge  of  the  diocese  made  him 
eminently  suited  to  fill  the  vacant  bishopric,  although  he 
suffered  from  an  internal  trouble  which  prevented  his  taking 
part  in  general  politics.  Nevertheless,  he  was  active  in  visiting 
his  diocese,  travelling  in  a  cart  when  riding  was  impossible 
for  him.  As  a  result  of  his  efforts  and  those  of  Edward  L, 
the  Pope,  Clement  V.,  appointed  the  Bishops  of  London 
and  Mende,  with  the  Papal  Nuncio,  William  de  Testa,  to 
make  the  examinations  necessary  before  Cantelupe  could  be 
canonized.  The  first  meeting  was  held  at  St.  Paul's  in  July, 
1307,  and  on  August  30  the  Bishops  of  London  and  Mende 
set  out  for  Hereford  to  continue  their  questionings.  It  was 
a  gay  cavalcade  that  rode  into  Hereford,  and  made  its  way 
through  the  city  to  the  palace  gate,  perhaps  one  of  the  gayest 
that  passed  in  that  way  for  many  a  year,  for  Swinfield,  when 
alone,  travelled  very  soberly.     The  sumpterers  had  travelled 


266      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL   PALACES 

on  before  with  the  hangings  and  furnishings  of  the  bishop's 
chambers,  and  great  preparations  had  been  made.  The 
palace  had  been  thoroughly  cleaned,  a  great  brewing  and 
baking  had  gone  forward,  and  a  huge  stock  of  venison  had 
been  brought  in  from  the  outlying  manors,  as  well  as  beef, 
mutton,  and  birds  of  all  kinds. 

The  bishops  soon  got  to  work.  In  the  cathedral  they  had 
enough  evidence  of  faith,  for  there  the  sick  and  infirm  waited 
day  and  night  for  healing.  Already  the  tomb  of  Cantelupe 
was  hung  with  offerings :  211  ships  of  silver  or  wax  attested  to 
escapes  from  the  sea ;  1,553  waxen  or  silver  images  of  men  or 
their  limbs  stood  for  other  mercies  ;  and  seventy-seven  figures 
of  birds  had  been  offered  with  prayers  for  recovery,  such  as 
the  king  himself  had  made  through  Thomas  Corbett  for  the 
recovery  of  a  sick  falcon.  To  the  ocular  proofs  of  silver 
and  gold,  gold  thread,  and  silken  attire,  were  added  no  less 
than  204  miracles  ;  and  the  commissioners  toiled  with  the 
details  all  through  the  summer  days,  and  only  finished  their 
task  when  November  came.  But  Swinfield  had  done  his  part, 
and  Cantelupe  was  declared  a  saint. 

Although  Swinfield  passed  some  months  at  his  palace  at 
this  time  he  does  not  appear  to  have  occupied  it  much  later 
in  his  life,  and  in  1289 — 90,  when  the  business  and  procession 
of  Palm  Sunday  brought  him  from  Sugwas  to  the  city,  he 
dined  with  his  favourites,  the  Friars  Minor.  At  the  same 
time  he  did  not  neglect  his  lands  and  manors  but  kept  them 
in  good  repair.  Although  knowledge  of  the  state  of  the 
palace  at  this  time  is  very  meagre,  it  is  possible  to  reconstruct 
his  household  in  minute  detail  by  the  fortunate  chance  which 
preserved  the  "  Roll  of  Household  Expenses  of  Richard  de 
Swinfield,"  edited  by  Webb  for  the  Camden  Society  in 
1854 — 5-     The  household  of   the  bishop   moved   with  him 


THE  PALACE  OF  HEREFORD    267 

everywhere,  and  consisted  usually  of  about  forty  persons, 
divided  among  the  four  classes  of  squires,  serving-men, 
inferior  servants,  and  pages.  Of  the  squires,  the  chief  in 
1289 — go  was  WiUiam  de  Cantelupe,  a  relation  of  the  late 
bishop,  whose  office  was  complimentary,  for  he  was  rarely 
among  the  bishop's  followers.  Raulin  de  Marines  was  the 
actual  leader  of  the  bishop's  gentlemen,  and  received  a 
salary  of  no  less  than  i6s,  8d.  for  the  half-year.  Under  him 
were  John  de  Basevill  and  Robert  Deinte ;  Adam  the  marshal, 
and  Richard,  his  second  in  command,  completed  the  tale  of 
the  squires.  Adam  the  marshal  was  a  very  important  person 
in  the  household,  for  with  him  rested  the  ordering  of  the  many 
and  all  matters  concerning  houses  and  journeys.  Under  the 
heading  of  serving-men  the  chief  was  Ralph,  clerk  of  the  chapel, 
who  was  normally  helped  by  Robert  his  fellow,  both  receiving 
6s.  8^.  a  year.  John  and  Robert  the  carters,  Ywenetto  the 
larderer,  Adam  Harpin  the  falconer,  William  the  door- 
keeper, Thomas  the  palfreyman,  Robilardo  the  butler,  were 
each  entrusted  with  important  departments,  and  among  this 
class  were  also  Henry  de  Beckford,  a  hunter,  and  two  farriers. 
The  inferior  servants  were  thirteen  in  number,  ranging 
from  Adam  of  the  chapel,  who  received  4s.  6d.  a  year, 
through  the  carter,  cooks,  Roger  the  baker,  and  two  personal 
servants,  to  William,  the  sub-palfreyman.  There  were  also 
thirteen  pages  attached  to  various  household  officers  :  the 
cook,  the  baker,  the  carter,  and  the  huntsman.  All  the 
members  of  these  four  classes  were  in  a  strictly  dependent 
position ;  but  beside  them  were  a  few  others,  attached  to  the 
household  in  an  official  or  private  capacity.  Of  these  the 
most  important  socially  was  Stephen,  "  my  lord's  brother  " 
and  a  layman,  who,  with  his  little  son,  was  permanently 
attached  to  the  bishop's  court.     Contemporary  with  the  little 


268       ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

boy  was  Walter,  son  of  Sir  Walter  de  Dunr',  a  tenant  of  an 
episcopal  fee  in  Chilston,  in  the  Golden  Valley.  On  his 
father's  death,  this  little  boy  had  been  handed  over  to  the 
guardianship  of  the  bishop  as  his  feudal  lord,  and  Richard 
de  Swinfield  had  granted  the  custody  to  his  brother  Stephen 
that  the  two  boys  might  be  brought  up  together.  "  Watkyn," 
as  the  child  was  called,  was  always  in  the  bishop's 
following,  and  seems  to  have  been  a  great  favourite.  The 
presence  of  the  children  served  to  lighten  a  society  from 
which  women  were  entirely  lacking,  though  Swinfield  was 
not  so  rigorous  as  had  been  his  predecessor,  Cantelupe,  who 
quelled  even  his  sister's  affection  and  himself  slept  elsewhere 
when  she  spent  a  night  at  his  palace.  Another  layman  was 
Reginald  de  Bocland.  If  Stephen  undertook  to  help  the 
bishop  on  social  occasions,  Thomas  de  la  Dane  was  his  right- 
hand  man  in  all  matters  of  business.  He  was  a  clerk  in  the 
household,  as  were  six  others,  among  whom  Roger  de  Sevenak 
was  the  most  important,  though  a  position  of  peculiar  trust 
was  held  by  John  de  Kemeseye,  who  to  his  clerkly  office  added 
that  of  treasurer  and  writer  of  the  accounts.  These  clerks  were 
probably  not  always  in  attendance,  but  each  took  his  turn, 
for  all  held  benefices  to  eke  out  their  salaries.  The  goods  of 
the  chapel  were  just  as  much  carried  from  place  to  place  as 
the  furnishings  of  the  bishop's  room  ;  and  Swinfield  says  in  his 
will  that  he  was  often  at  a  loss  to  obtain  everything  needful  for 
the  due  observance  of  the  rites  until  he  himself  bought  the 
vessels.  He,  therefore,  on  his  death,  bequeathed  to  his 
successor  the  pontifical  and  all  the  books  which  he  and  his 
clerks  were  commonly  wont  to  use  in  chapel — namely,  those 
which  he  bought  of  the  executors  of  St.  Thomas  Cantelupe, 
and  to  these  he  added  a  silver  chrismatory  bought  in  London, 
and  one  silver  incense-box  with  its  shell. 


THE  PALACE  OF  HEREFORD    269 

One  of  the  most  noteworthy  of  the  Bishops  of  Hereford 
was  Adam  de  Orlton — no  saint,  indeed,  but  a  statesman 
who  left  his  mark  more  deeply  on  the  realm  than  on  his 
diocese.  In  his  early  years  he  found  a  patron  in  one  of  the 
Mortimers,  lords  of  Wigmore,  and  later  he  went  abroad, 
becoming  an  auditor  in  the  papal  court.  In  this  position  he 
won  the  friendship  of  John  XXII.,  and  rumour  named  him 
as  the  next  papal  favourite  to  be  rewarded  with  an  English 
see.  Accordingly,  when  the  bishopric  of  Hereford  became 
vacant  in  1317,  John  nominated  Orlton,  who  received 
a  letter  from  the  king  enjoining  him  to  refuse  the  Pope's 
nomination.  Edward  himself  put  forward  a  candidate 
in  the  person  of  Thomas  de  Charlton.  Adam  did  not  fall 
in  with  the  king's  desires,  and  on  Sunday,  October  2,  1317, 
the  Archdeacon  of  Hereford  enthroned  his  new  bishop. 
Edward  soon  recovered  from  his  disappointment,  and  recog- 
nized that  in  Orlton  he  had  a  most  useful  servant  used  to 
all  the  intrigues  and  by-ways  of  Continental  politics.  In 
1318  and  1319  the  Bishop  of  Hereford  can  have  been  little 
in  his  diocese,  for  he  was  sent  on  a  mission  to  Philip  V.,  and 
entrusted  with  both  public  and  private  business  of  the  king. 
It  has  been  pointed  out  in  the  printed  edition  of  "  Orlton's 
Register  "  that  the  bishop  was  guided  in  all  things  by  strong 
personal  loyalty  to  John  XXII.  on  the  one  hand,  and  to 
Mortimer,  who  had  now  succeeded  his  father,  on  the  other. 

It  was  probably  this  personal  friendship  which  led  Orlton, 
in  1321,  to  take  the  side  of  the  barons  in  their  rising  under 
Badlesmere ;  and  so  prominent  a  part  did  he  play  in  their 
counsels  that  he  was  brought  before  Parliament  and  charged 
with  treason  as  an  adherent  of  Mortimer.  The  bishop  at 
once  denied  the  right  of  a  lay  tribunal  to  try  an  ecclesiastic, 
refusing  to  answer  the  charges  brought  against  him.     The 


270      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

Archbishop  of  Canterbury  supported  him,  and  the  whole 
body  of  bishops  took  him  under  their  protection.  But, 
though  Orlton  was  thus  saved  from  personal  violence,  he 
could  not  keep  his  temporalities  from  molestation  when  the 
king  ordered  them  to  be  seized,  and  an  immense  amount  of 
damage  was  done  in  the  two  and  a  half  years  in  which  they 
were  sequestrated.  The  manors  came  largely  into  the  hands 
of  the  younger  Hugh  Despenser,  whose  bitter  grudge  against 
the  bishop  found  vent  both  in  seizing  the  gold  and  silver 
vessels  and  other  costly  ornaments  from  the  bishop's  houses 
and  in  destroying  his  crops.  The  bishop  was  now  practically 
outlawed,  for  hardly  any  dare  give  him  food  or  shelter,  and  his 
train  disappeared.  Wandering  about  on  foot,  his  only  friends 
were  those  of  the  baronial  party  who  were  left  in  England. 
But  as  time  passed,  Edward  alienated  his  people  more  and 
more,  till  the  Despensers,  Baldock  his  chancellor,  and 
Stapleton  his  treasurer,  were  the  only  men  on  whom  he 
could  rely.  Affairs  were  in  this  condition  in  September, 
1326,  when  the  queen  landed  at  Harwich  and  made  her  way 
across  England.  Orlton  had  met  her  on  her  arrival,  and 
had  invited  her  to  Hereford,  which  she  reached  a  few  weeks 
later,  having  passed  through  Oxford,  Gloucester,  Berkeley, 
and  Bristol  on  her  way.  The  move  was  amply  justified,  for 
Edward  moved  before  the  advancing  army  into  Wales,  and 
was  practically  cornered  there.  The  queen  was  well  accom- 
panied ;  Orlton  was  her  chief  adviser,  and  she  lodged  at  the 
palace,  probably  because  the  troops  were  occupying  the 
castle.  William,  Earl  of  Lancaster,  and  William,  Lord  de 
la  Zouche,  were  with  her,  as  well  as  various  permanent 
officials.  A  council  was  called  to  Hereford,  and  probably 
the  bishop's  hall  was  used  for  these  meetings,  as  the  chapter- 
house was  too  small  a  building  for  the  purpose.     Some  effort 


THE  PALACE  OF  HEREFORD    271 

was  made  at  bringing  things  into  order,  for  on  St.  Cecilia's 
Day  De  la  Zouche  and  Sir  John  and  Sir  Edward  St.  John 
"caused  to  be  carried  to  the  chamber  of  Queen  Isabel  .  .  . 
four  bags  wherein  were  rolls,  inquisitions,"  and  so  on,  taken 
from  Swansea  Castle,  and  these  were  delivered  up  to  Master 
Henry  de  Cliff,  keeper  of  the  rolls  of  the  Chancery,  who  took 
them  to  his  lodging.  It  was  apparently  by  Orlton's  advice 
that  the  queen  sent  a  detachment  of  troops  into  Wales  ; 
Edward  was  captured  and  sent  a  prisoner  to  Kenil worth. 
Bloody  work  was  going  on  at  Hereford  ;  the  Earl  of  Arundel, 
John  Daniel,  and  Thomas  de  Michedeure,  all  obnoxious  to 
the  baronial  party,  were  beheaded  at  the  instigation,  it  was 
said,  of  Roger  de  Mortimer.  Later,  Hugh  Despenser  the 
younger  was  led  out  to  die  on  gallows  50  feet  high,  and 
was  then  drawn  and  quartered,  Simon  de  Reading  meeting 
the  same  death.  Baldock,  one  of  the  best  hated  men  in 
England,  would  doubtless  have  suffered  in  the  same  way, 
but  Orlton,  who  had  himself  pleaded  clerkship  in  his  dire 
straits,  now  claimed  the  chancellor  as  a  clerk  and  lodged  him 
in  his  prison.  There  he  remained  until  early  in  the  following 
year,  when  Orlton  determined  to  have  him  tried  before  the 
Ecclesiastical  Court  in  London.  In  January,  therefore,  he 
made  the  wearisome  journey  under  guard,  and  was  lodged 
in  the  bishop's  town-house  at  St.  Mary  Mounthaw.  But  a 
few  months  before,  Stapleton  the  treasurer  had  been  mur- 
dered by  the  Londoners,  who  were  still  vehement  against 
the  king's  party;  Baldock  now  became  their  prey,  for  under 
the  pretext  that  no  man  might  keep  a  private  prison  within 
the  liberties  a  mob  seized  the  unfortunate  cleric  and  shut 
him  up  in  Newgate.  On  the  way  he  was  very  roughly 
treated,  and  his  injuries  and  the  neglect  of  the  next  few 
weeks  proved  too  much  for  him  and  he  died  in  the  gaol. 


272      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL   PALACES 

For  the  next  hundred  and  fifty  years  the  palace  was  little 
occupied  by  the  bishops,  and  was  indeed  chiefly  used  for  the 
holding  of  the  manor  courts  of  the  bishop's  fee,  which  were 
regularly  held  until  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
though  in  1702  it  was  said  that  the  power  of  the  court  was 
in  a  manner  lost,  "  scarce  any  one  minding  to  yield  obedience 
thereto."  It  should  be  added  that  a  court  leet  for  the  manor 
is  still  held. 

The   origin    of  the   fee  is  unknown,  but  the   church  of 
Hereford  certainly  held  it  in  the  reign  of  Edward  the  Con- 
fessor, who  granted  that  the  priests  might  be  free  of  all  soke 
and  sake  on  their  lands  and  over  their  men,  whether  within 
or  without  the  city,  in  as  free  a  way  as  they  had  hitherto 
enjoyed.     The  result  of  this  was  that  before  Edward's  death 
the  bishop's  fee  was  already  established  as  a  separate  entity 
to   the  borough,  though  existing  within  its   limits   and   so 
completely  organized  that  the  bishop  had  his  "  moneyer." 
As  the  organization  of  the  borough  became  more  defined  the 
difficulty  of  this  double  jurisdiction  increased,  so  that  it  forms 
the  keynote  to  one  of  the  most  interesting  portions  of  the 
history  of  the  palace.    For,  besides  its  direct  bearing  on  events, 
its  indirect  result  was  to  make  the  bishops  somewhat  wary  of 
visiting  their  city  :  it  was  an  unpleasant  state  of  affairs  when 
the  escort  might  at  any  moment  be  embroiled  with  the  citizens, 
who    would    certainly  refuse  redress  and  probably  make  a 
counterclaim.     The  case  was  complicated  by  the  absence  of 
boundaries  :  at  Lincoln  the  close  was  enclosed  within  a  wall, 
and  there  could  be  no  question  as  to  whether  a  thief  was 
taken  on  city  ground  or  no.     Here  it  was  different,  for  the 
fee  extended  far  beyond  the  proper  limits  of  the  close,  and, 
indeed,  covered  nearly  half  the  city.     Moreover,  the  canonical 
houses  were  leased  to  lay-folk  from   an  early  date,  and  in 


THE  PALACE  OF  HEREFORD    273 

1321,  when  Adam  de  Orlton  granted  Richard  de  Vernon 
permission  to  unite  to  his  own  lodging  that  of  Hugh  de 
Braose  the  penitentiary,  he  explained  that  there  were 
many  canonical  dwellings  which  from  the  inconvenience  of 
the  situation  and  other  causes  were  not  considered  suitable 
for  the  canons  and  so  had  fallen  into  neglect.  These 
houses  stood  near  the  palace,  perhaps  in  Pie  Lane,  now 
Queen  Street,  but  one,  at  least,  was  in  Cabbage  Lane,  at 
some  distance  from  the  cathedral,  and  this  was  leased  by 
Bishop  Trevenant  (1389 — 1404)  to  John  the  Carpenter,  alias 
Menyfer,  a  citizen  of  Hereford.  The  lease  was  for  forty 
years,  and  the  rent  two  silver  marks  ;  moreover,  John  was 
to  repair  the  hall  and  other  buildings,  and  was  also  to  add 
to  the  hall  a  chamber  "  with  six  posts." 

Many  such  grants  as  this  occur  in  the  bishops'  registers 
from  this  time  down  to  1702,  when  "  y^  Lady  Croft  held  a 
mansion  or  canonical  house  "  for  three  lives. 

Undoubtedly  the  citizens  had  some  room  for  complaint. 
They  may  well  have  thought  it  hard  that  householders  within 
their  very  walls  should  have  been  free  from  the  burden  of 
contributing  to  the  fee-farm  rent,  which  the  householders 
generally  had  to  pay  to  the  Crown,  The  city  made  some  effort 
to  get  money  from  the  bishop's  tenants  in  about  1207,  and  were 
straightway  excommunicated ;  this  brought  about  their  sub- 
mission, and  Hugh  Foliot,  who  had  taken  the  matter  to  the 
royal  courts,  absolved  them  on  their  promise  to  make 
restitution.  Peace  was  only  established  for  a  time,  and 
discontent  again  became  rife.  One  of  the  most  annoying 
of  the  bishop's  rights  was  the  St.  Ethelbert's  Fair,  which 
began  on  the  feast  of  St.  Dunstan — that  is,  on  May  19 — 
and  lasted  for  nine  days.  Usages  such  as  this  vary  little 
from  century  to  century,  and  probably  the  description  given 

E.E.P.  T 


274      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

to  Bishop  Humphrey  in  about  1702  of  "  the  uninterrupted 
manner  of  holding  the  bishop's  fair  "  represents  immemorial 
custom.      "  The    Bailiff  and   his  Steward  on  the  morning 
come  to  the  palace  and  there  call  all  the  resiants  of  the 
said  fee  by  name  to  appear  and  give  their  attendance  on 
the  Bailiff  in  proclaiming  his  Fair.     When  the  Inhabitants 
are   called,  the   Bailiff  and  Steward,   with    a  mace   before 
them,    and    perhaps    a   hundred   or    two    hundred    Horse 
attending    them,    ride   round   the   fee    and    from    one   gate 
of   the  City  to  another  till  they  have  gone  to  every  gate, 
and    at   each   gate   the    Bailiffs   appoint   a   porter   for   the 
nine  days  and  the  Steward  gives  him  a  proper  oath  ;  and  then 
they  ride  to  the  High  Cross  and  there  the  fair  is  proclaimed 
very  solemnly  and  most  commonly  by  the  city  cryer.     The 
Bailiff  by  his  two  porters  takes  all  the  fair  Toll  at  the  respective 
gates  of  the  City,  and  by  his  sergeant-at-mace  the  toll  of  the 
market  of  all  sorts  of  grain  and  other  things  that  ought  to  be 
tolled.     The  Bailiff  also  has  the  Benefit  of  pitching-pence  and 
all  standings  erected  on  the  High  Causeway.     The  Bailiff 
frequently  weighs  the  Butter,  and  if  any  deceit  be  he  seizes  it 
and  gives  it  to  the  poor  or  where  he  pleases.    During  this  fair 
the  Mayor's  Sergeants-at-mace  execute  no  process  without 
the  leave  of  the  Bailiffs."     Such  regulations  were  very  gaUing, 
for   they    had    the    effect  of  making   the   citizens  strangers 
within  their  own  city,  and  in  1241  they  actually  class  them- 
selves with  "  other  foreign  merchants."      A  little  before  this 
date   they   had   apparently   started   a   separate   market   for 
themselves,  and  refused  to  sell  their  wool  and  grain  with  the 
traffickers  from  without.     Once   again   the   bishop   subdued 
them,  and  though  they  made  a  rather  half-hearted  confession 
of  his  rights  they  promised  in  the  future  they  would  sell  all 
their  goods,  except  bread,  wine,  ale,  flesh,  and  fish,  in  the 


THE  PALACE  OF  HEREFORD    275 

places  assigned  to  them  by  the  bishop's  baihff.  Another 
twenty  years  brought  a  fresh  quarrel.  The  city  struck  on  the 
brilliant  idea  of  retaliation  by  treating  the  tenants  of  the  fee 
as  foreigners,  and  so  subject  to  all  manner  of  vexatious  tolls. 
They  had  also  further  developed  their  claim  to  sell  victuals 
without  interference  from  the  bailiff  into  a  definite  denial  of 
the  bishop's  claim  to  the  assize  of  bread  and  ale,  and  they 
refused  to  allow  the  town's  pillory  and  ducking-stool  to  be 
used  for  scolds  and  other  offenders  sentenced  in  the  court  of 
the  fee.  Once  more  the  bishop  appealed  to  the  king's  courts, 
and  obtained  judgment,  and  once  more  the  city  submitted — 
with  how  much  repentance  was  evident  in  the  following  year 
when  the  citizens  refused  to  give  up  the  keys  of  the  gates  at 
the  annual  fair.  The  whole  question  was  really  one  of  juris- 
diction ;  the  bishop  claimed  that  he  alone  could  hold  courts 
in  his  fee,  that  he  alone  had  infangenethef  and  utfangenethef 
against  felons,  that  he  alone  within  his  liberty  could  attach 
men's  persons  and  put  in  prison.  In  1285,  after  the  bailiffs 
and  citizens  had  made  arrests  within  the  fee  and  refused  to 
give  up  his  prisoners,  the  Crown  once  more  interfered  and 
addressed  a  writ  to  the  sheriff  to  enforce  submission.  It 
was,  therefore,  only  under  pressure  that  on  St.  Denis's  Day, 
1285,  the  citizens  went  in  state  to  the  cathedral,  and  that 
there  the  bailiffs,  William,  called  Godknave,  John  le  Gaunter, 
Hugh  Bolock  and  others,  made  submission. 

In  the  fourteenth  century  the  citizens'  grievances  centered 
chiefly  round  the  prison,  where  the  bishop  kept  not  only 
criminous  clerks  but  recalcitrant  citizens  of  his  fee.  Even 
as  late  as  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century,  "  when  Mr. 
Hum  :  Gullipher  was  Bayliff,  he  sent  a  Ballad-singer  to  the 
Palace  Prison  for  singing  Ballades  in  ye  nine  days  fair."  It 
was  also  said  that  "one  Probyn,  an  Ironmonger,  bought  of 

T     2 


276      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL   PALACES 

Coll.  Birch  10,000  weight  of  Iron  that  belonged  to  the  Palace 
Prison."  Though  the  ordinary  janitor  of  the  household  was 
one  of  the  lower  servants  the  permanent  janitor  at  Hereford 
was  much  more  than  this,  being  both  keeper  of  the  palace 
during  the  bishop's  absence  and,  a  still  more  important  post, 
gaoler  of  the  episcopal  prison.  He  was  appointed  by  a  new 
bishop  by  a  special  warrant,  and  on  the  resignation  of 
Nicholas  de  Grozord,  a  formal  quittance  was  given  him  by 
Bishop  Trellick.  It  is  quite  appreciable  that  when  feeling 
between  the  city  and  the  bishop's  officers  had  grown  very 
high,  the  keeper  of  the  palace  should  have  been  decidedly 
unpopular.  In  the  first  half  of  the  fourteenth  century 
popular  sentiment  found  vent  in  various  petty  thefts  deliber- 
ately planned  to  annoy.  Steps  and  a  wicket-gate  in  the 
close  disappeared,  and  in  1353  a  more  daring  outrage  was 
planned,  doubtless  brought  about  by  some  incident  of  which 
the  particulars  are  lost.  Whatever  the  cause,  the  plan  was 
well  thought  out,  the  leader  being  William,  son  of  Sir  Roger 
Corbett,  knight,  one  of  the  chief  men  of  the  county.  How 
or  when  he  did  it  is  not  known,  but  he  managed  to  kidnap 
the  janitor  of  the  palace,  put  him  in  the  city  prison  and  carry 
off  his  keys,  risking,  as  the  record  states,  the  danger  of  the 
greater  excommunication.  The  scandal  was,  of  course, 
tremendous,  and  the  thing  had  been  done  so  openly  that 
there  was  no  doubt  of  the  culprit.  William  had  apparently 
fulfilled  his  purpose,  and  he  made  submission  on  August  4, 
i353>  ^t  St.  Peter's  Church,  and,  laying  hands  on  the  con- 
secrated elements,  one  by  one,  he  swore  in  solemn  fashion  to 
be  of  good  behaviour  in  the  future,  and  was  thereupon 
absolved. 

Little  or   nothing  is  known  of  the    history  of  the  palace 
during    the    fifteenth    and    sixteenth    centuries,   and   it    was 


THE  PALACE  OF  HEREFORD    277 


probably  not  much  used  by  the  bishops  during  this  period. 
Indeed,  John  Scory,  who  was  translated  to  the  see  in  1559, 
found  it  "an  uncommodious  and  unwholesome  dwelling,"  and 
wished  to  pull  down  part  of  it.  The  chapter,  however,  still 
had  a  certain  amount  of  power  in  the  matter  and  vetoed  the 
proposal.  The  bishop's  views  do  not  seem  to  have  been 
shared  by  royal  commissioners  in  1535,  when  the  tem- 
poralities were  in  the  king's  hand  through  the  death  of 
Charles  Booth,  for  Sir  Thomas  Englefield  wrote  to  Cromwell, 
saying :  "  It  will  be  well  when  the  king  appoints  any  of  his 
chaplains  to  the  bishopric,  we  may  have  liberty  to  lie  in  the 
bishop's  palace  in  Hereford  at  such  times  as  we  think  con- 
venient, as  no  other  place  is  so  suitable." 

It  was  during  the  episcopate  of  Bishop  Scory  that  the 
episcopal  revenues  were  much  diminished  by  one  of  those 
disastrous   "exchanges"  so   fashionable  at  that  date. 

Among  the  lands  then  alienated  to  the  Crown  was  the  inn 
or  lodging  of  the  Bishops  of  Hereford  in  London.  The  house 
stood  in  the  ward  of  Queenhithe  on  the  west  side  of  Old  Fish 
Street,  about  74  feet  east  of  its  junction  with  Lombard  Street. 
Ralph  de  Maidstone  bought  it  in  about  1274  for  £^7  from,  it 
is  said,  the  Montalts,  a  family  of  much  importance  in 
Norfolk,  where  they  were  lords  of  Castle  Rising.  For  this 
early  ownership  there  is,  however,  no  evidence  beyond  the 
statement  of  Stowe,  and  it  is  quite  possible  that  the  name  of 
"  Mounthaw,"  applied  to  the  chapel,  was  derived  in  some 
other  way.  From  the  "  Roll  of  Household  Expenses  of 
Bishop  Swinfield,"  it  is  evident  that  the  house  was  built  partly 
of  stone  and  partly  of  wood,  and  consisted  of  long  rooms,  with 
a  hall,  outbuildings,  stables  and  cellars,  and  the  chapel. 
This  chapel  became  the  parish  church  of  St.  Mary  Mount- 
haw   the  bishop  being  patron  ;  burnt  down  in  the  Great  Fire 


278      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

of  1666  and  never  rebuilt,  its  rights  became  attached  hence- 
forth to  St.  Mary  Somerset.  From  the  first  it  seems  to  have 
been  let  to  tenants  who  held  it  on  condition  that  the  bishop 
might  have  lodging  there  when  his  affairs  brought  him  to 
London.  So,  in  1290,  when  Swinfield  came  to  town  he  paid 
compensation  to  the  tenant  and  also  made  various  repairs  ; 
the  carpenters  mended  the  roof  and  set  up  a  long  manger  in 
the  stable  for  the  many  horses  of  the  bishop's  train  ;  mats 
were  bought  for  the  benches  in  the  hall,  and  rushes  for  the 
floor;  there  was  a  vigorous  cleaning,  and  a  pavement  was 
laid  down  on  the  west  side  of  the  house  in  the  garden  or 
yard.  Even  greater  must  have  been  the  preparations  in  1307 
when  Swinfield  entertained  here  the  papal  commissioner, 
Durandus,  Bishop  of  Mende,  who  had  come  to  make  inquiry 
before  Cantelupe  could  be  canonized.  Four  years  later 
Swinfield  gave  a  lease  of  the  premises  to  Hamo  de  Chigwell, 
whom  Stowe  calls  a  pepperer  and  the  records  a  fishmonger. 
This  lease  was  merely  a  continuation  of  a  former  tenancy, 
for  it  seems  to  have  been  in  his  family  from  its  coming  into 
the  hands  of  the  bishops,  and  Richard  de  Chigwell  was 
holding  it  in  1289.  Adam  de  Orlton  seems  to  have  retained 
the  Chigwells  as  tenants,  for  in  1318  he  acknowledged  a  debt 
of  ;£'20  to  Hamo  de  Chigwell.  In  1327  it,  or  part  of  it, 
seems  to  have  been  sub-let,  for  when  Joan  de  Chigwell  died 
she  left  in  charity  certain  rents  which  she  was  wont  to 
receive  from  it  every  year.  It  is  certain  that  in  1400,  at  any 
rate,  the  whole  of  the  tenement  was  not  in  the  possession  of 
one  tenant,  for  in  that  year  Bishop  Trevenant  leased  to  John 
Howell,  mason,  a  "  parcel  of  land  of  the  garden  in  the  west 
part  of  the  lodging,"  opposite  the  king's  highway,  called 
"  Lombardeshull  next  Oldefyschestret,"  on  condition  that  he 
built  thereon  a  house  "  de  uno  stage,"  in  which  no  window 


THE  PALACE  OF  HEREFORD    279 

might  overlook  the  garden,  and  that  he  did  all  repairs  and 
maintained  it  against  rain  and  wind.  This  must  have  been 
the  tenement  which  was  valued  on  Trevenant's  death,  in 
1417,  at  6s.  8c/.,  while  the  lodging  was  worth  six  marks. 
This  shows  a  great  increase  in  value  since  1302 — 3,  when  it 
was  appraised  at  only  half  a  mark  ;  but  the  value  of  land 
in  the  city  was  increasing  rapidly,  and  in  1422  it  was  sat 
down  at  £S- 

Disastrous  as  was  the  "  exchange"  made  by  Scory  to  the 
revenues  of  the  see  it  was  favourable  to  the  palace ;  as  early 
as  1356  the  enormous  expenditure  entailed  by  keeping  up  so 
many  manor-houses  had  necessitated  an  arrangement  between 
Trellick  and  his  chapter  by  which  the  palace  and  the  manor- 
houses  at  Sugwas,  Prestbury,  Whithorn,  Bosbury,  and 
Richard's  Castle  were  to  be  maintained,  while  on  the  other 
manors  only  the  farm  buildings  were  to  be  kept  in  repair. 
The  result  of  this  further  reduction  was  that  the  bishops 
were  forced  to  live  in  the  palace  which  had  hitherto  been  so 
little  frequented.  Scory,  whose  avarice  and  neglect  brought 
on  his  son  a  heavy  claim  for  dilapidations,  was  followed  by 
Herbert  Westfaling  and  many  another :  Francis  Godwin 
author  of  "  The  Man  in  the  Moon,"  as  well  as  of  a  learned 
catalogue  of  English  bishops,  was  one  of  the  best  known 
before  the  Civil  War. 

As  in  most  cathedral  cities  the  Civil  War  had  disastrous 
results  to  the  fabric  of  cathedral  and  palace.  The  county 
was,  on  the  whole,  Royalist  in  sympathy,  and  in  February 
1641 — 2,  the  commissioners  appointed  by  the  king  had  no 
trouble  in  taking  possession  of  the  county  magazine  at  St. 
Owen's  Gate  in  Hereford.  It  was  important  for  the  Cavaliers 
to  hold  the  city,  for  it  secured  their  line  of  communication 
with  Monmouthshire  and  southern  Wales,  and  this  made  it 


28o      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

equally  desirable  to  the  Parliamentarians.  On  October  7, 
Lord  St.  John  appeared  with  a  regiment  of  foot  and  horse, 
and  demanded  entrance  in  the  name  of  the  Parliament.  The 
mayor,  in  a  panic,  opened  the  gates,  and  the  soldiers  "  with 
much  joy  were  by  all  the  well-affected  townsmen  received," 
as  a  newsletter  tells.  Meanwhile  the  Cavaliers  in  the  city 
had  taken  refuge  with  the  Marquis  of  Hertford,  and  on  the 
next  day,  when  Charles  appeared  before  the  gates,  he  was 
refused  admission,  "  upon  which  His  Majesty  was  much 
incensed,  and  in  passion  departed  with  his  army  towards 
Chester,  hearing  the  Earl  of  Essex  was  marching  toward 
Hereford."  The  Parliamentary  forces  under  Lord  Stamford 
occupied  the  city  for  some  months,  and  then  finding  them- 
selves isolated  and  their  presence  no  longer  needful  they 
retreated  to  Gloucester,  leaving  Hereford  to  the  Royalists 
under  Colonel  Sir  Richard  Lawder.  They  only  retained  it 
for  a  few  months,  for  on  April  25,  1643,  Sir  William  Waller 
appeared  and  captured  it  and  all  its  garrison.  But  he,  too, 
was  not  strong  enough  to  hold  it  long,  and  it  was  again 
evacuated  in  May.  In  April,  1645,  Prince  Rupert  took  up 
a  stand  here,  and  the  Royalist  strength  was  needed,  for  in 
July  the  Scottish  army  appeared  in  the  country.  The 
citizens  were  thoroughly  alarmed,  for  only  a  week  earlier 
the  Roundheads  had  stormed  Canon  Frome  and  put  the 
governor  and  the  greater  part  of  the  garrison  to  the  sword. 
A  printed  Letter  to  the  governor  gives  a  vivid  account 
of  the  siege  which  began  on  July  30.  The  great  point  of 
the  struggle  was  to  cross  the  Wye,  and  the  bridge  was 
first  attempted.  The  governor.  Sir  Barnabas  Scudamore, 
"  ensafed  the  ports,"  and  stopped  the  cathedral  bells  and 
clocks  so  that  the  enemy  might  not  tell  how  time  went. 
Next  morning  the  attack  began  in    earnest.     "  Our  men," 


THE    PALACE    OF   HEREFORD         281 

Scudamore  wrote,  "  galled  them  handsomely  at  their  several 
sallies  over  Wye-bridge,  once  beat  them  up  to  their  main 
guard  and  at  another  demolished  one  side  of  St.  Martin's 
steeple,  which  would  have  much  annoyed  us  at  the  Bridge 
and  Palace  ;  this  was  performed  only  with  the  hurt  of  two 
men,  but  with  loss  of  great  store  of  the  enemy's  men."  This 
importance  of  the  palace  was  great,  for  its  gardens  lay  just 
to  the  east  of  the  bridge,  and  if  they  were  seized  a  way  could 
be  found  to  the  castle,  which  was  not  now  strong  enough  to 
bear  investment.  The  attack  on  the  bridge  increased  in 
fury  after  the  Parliamentary  Major-General  Crafford  was 
killed,  and  "  they  battered  it  so  much  (being  the  weakest) 
that  it  was  rendered  useless,  yet  our  men  stopt  it  up  with 
Wooll-sacks  and  Timber,  and  for  our  greater  assurance  of 
eluding  their  attempt,  we  brake  an  Arch  and  raised  a  very 
strong  Worke  behind  it."  Batteries  were  then  built  on  the 
Wye  side  and  directed  against  the  wall.  No  breach  was 
made,  but  it  must  have  been  at  this  time  that  the  mediaeval 
outbuildings  and  offices  of  the  palace  were  destroyed  so  that 
now  nothing  of  them  remains.  The  siege  went  on  all  through 
the  hot  days  of  August,  but  in  spite  of  discomfort  the  citizens 
worked  well,  clergy  and  laymen  alike  took  their  place  on 
guard,  the  women  helped  heedless  of  bullets,  and  the  little 
boys  delighted  in  being  allowed  to  creep  with  torches  to  fire 
the  enemy's  lines.  There  was  plenty  of  work  for  all,  for  the 
Scots  were  mining  near  St.  Owen's  Gate  and  counter-mines 
were  the  only  remedy ;  then  when  the  besieged  were  desper- 
ate, rain  came.  And  it  rained  continuously  day  after  day 
for  eight  days,  drowning  the  Scottish  mines  completely. 
These  were  abandoned,  but  the  siege  was  still  pressed,  and 
on  August  31,  a  scaling-party  was  formed  for  next  day;  "  but 
the  same  night  His  Majesty  advancing  from  Worcester  gave 


282      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

them  a  very  hot  alarum,  and  drawing  a  httle  nearer  to  us, 
Hke  the  Sunne  to  the  meridian,  this  Scotch  mist  begunne 
to  disperse,  and  the  next  morning  vanished  out  of  sight." 
"  Hereford,"  as  Webb  says,  "  and  the  whole  country  were 
transported  with  exultation  and  triumph."  The  triumph  was 
to  be  shortlived.  Webb,  in  his  edition  of  the  "  Military 
Memoir  of  Col.  John  Birch,"  has  shown  how  insecure  was 
Scudamore's  position ;  he  had  offended  the  city,  and  some 
of  his  garrison  left  him  to  join  the  enemy.  Among  these 
were  Captains  Alderne  and  Howarth,  who  came  in  contact 
with  John  Birch,  a  Presbyterian  colonel,  then  Governor  of 
Bath.  It  must  have  been  about  this  time  that  the  House  of 
Commons  ordered  Birch  to  advance  with  i,ooo  foot  and 
horse  "  to  distress  the  cittie  of  Hereford."  They  set  out 
from  Bath  and  Bristol  on  December  g,  "which  day  it  pleased 
God  to  begin  a  great  frost,  without  which  it  had  been  impos- 
sible to  have  marcht  at  that  time  of  the  yeare  in  those 
Counties  of  Gloucester  and  Herefordshire."  Birch  formed  a 
very  simple  plan,  and  marched  his  troops  to  Ledbury,  the 
weather  being  so  severe  that  some  men  died  there  from  the 
cold.  At  nine  o'clock  on  the  evening  of  December  i6.  Birch 
roused  his  men,  who  marched  on  Hereford  "  speedily,  but 
soe  silently  that  a  dog  scarce  barked  all  the  night,  though 
wee  marched  through  three  or  four  villages ;  but  in  deed  that 
was  not  strange,  for  if  a  dog  had  bin  without  doores  that 
night  he  would  have  been  starved  to  death." 

It  was  Scudamore's  custom  to  send  out  "  warrants  to  the 
constables  in  the  country  to  send  him  soe  many  men  every 
morneing  to  breake  the  ice  on  the  mote  and  river."  Birch 
knowing  this,  disguised  seven  foresters  as  a  "  constable  and 
his  sixe  men,  gave  him  his  warrant,  appointed  him  his  bill, 
and  to  them  their  pickaxes  and  shovells,  bound  up  for  them 


THE  PALACE  OF  HEREFORD    283 

very  black  rie  bread  and  cheese  in  course  table  napkins,  soe 
that  to  see  them  goe  a  man  would  have  ventred  his  life  they 
had  bin  country  labourers  indeed."  A  body  was  hidden  in  a 
hollow  without  Bister's  Gate,  and  when  eight  o'clock  came  and 
the  drawbridge  was  let  down,  an  entrance  was  forced,  while 
the  mock  constable  engaged  the  guard.  "  And  although 
within  the  cittie  of  Hereford  was  1,100  townsmen  whoe  had 
taken  up  armes  for  the  king,  after  halfe  an  hour's  dispute  in 
the  street,  and  the  loss  of  about  tenn,"  the  city  was  taken. 
Birch  sent  news  of  this  prize  to  the  Parliament,  which 
immediately  made  him  Governor  of  Hereford.  "  A  New 
Tricke  to  Take  Towns,"  remarks  that  "  the  governor  thus  by 
policy  and  force  surprised,  without  remedy,  was  plundered ; 
neither  could  the  commanders  rhetoricke  or  threats  prevaile 
with  the  souldier  to  keep  their  hands  from  pillage."  The 
palace  was  rifled,  though  it  probably  escaped  more  lightly 
than  some  other  places,  as  Birch  and  Colonel  Morgan  his 
companion,  made  it  their  headquarters.  It  was  here  that  all 
the  various  committee  meetings  were  held,  and  that  in  1647 
the  soldiers  discussed  the  possibility  of  disbanding  the  troops. 
Birch  must  have  found  the  palace  a  pleasant  abode,  and  he 
certainly  appreciated  its  value,  for  when  the  House  of 
Commons  had  vested  the  episcopal  estates  in  trustees  who 
were  empowered  to  sell,  Birch  determined  to  purchase  the 
palace  and  the  group  of  manors  annexed  thereto.  Accord- 
ingly on  February  22,  1649 — 50  he  became  the  owner  of 
"all  that  capitall  messuage  or  mancion  house  with  all  and 
singuler  the  right  members  the  appurtenaunces  thereto 
belonging,  situate,  lying,  and  being  within  or  neare  unto  the 
citty  of  Hereford,  being  commonly  called  or  knowne  by  the 
name  of  the  Bishopp  of  Hereford  Pallace  together  with  the 
seyte  groune  and  circuite,"  the  whole  being  valued  at  £11. 


284      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

"  And  alsoe  the  materialls  of  the  said  Pallace  .  .  .  valued 
at  eight  and  fortie  poundes."  The  price  of  the  palace,  and 
the  manors  of  Shelwick,  Barton,  Tupsley,  Bishop's  Eaton, 
Bishop's  Hampton,  and  Sugwas  was  ;^2,475  12s.  5^^.  [sic],  the 
purchase  being  clearly  one  of  those  speculations  for  which 
Birch  had  particular  talent.  A  Bristol  merchant  before  the 
war,  he  had  lent  money  to  the  Parliament  at  eight  per  cent, 
interest,  and  before  buying  the  palace  had  got  into  his  hands 
the  episcopal  manor  of  Whitborn,  which  Walker,  in  1714, 
says,  was  then,  "  by  the  sorry  compliance  of  some  one  who 
might  have  prevented  it,"  still  held  by  members  of  his  family. 
Birch  perhaps  found  the  house  too  large  for  him,  for  he  is 
said  to  have  divided  it  into  two  parts,  and  perhaps  in  this 
may  be  found  the  meaning  of  Wood's  statement  that  Birch 
bought  but  half  the  palace,  the  second  purchaser  being 
Captain  Silas  Taylor.  At  the  Restoration  he  had,  of  course, 
to  leave,  but  he  made  a  bid  for  compensation,  and  when 
rumour  put  forward  Baxter  as  a  possible  successor  to  the 
see  Birch  tried  to  persuade  him  to  accept  it  "because,"  as 
Baxter  put  it,  "  he  thought  to  make  a  better  bargain  with 
me  than  with  another." 

The  palace  does  not  seem  to  have  been  much  altered  until 
the  episcopate  of  Philip  Bisse  who  was  translated  from 
St.  David's  in  February  1712 — 13.  A  notably  handsome  man, 
he  was  a  favourite  at  Court,  and  he  found  the  palace  at  once 
old  fashioned  and  inconvenient.  He  accordingly  divided  the 
great  hall  into  five  compartments  corresponding  with  the 
bays,  and  either  pulled  down  or  refaced  the  walls  with  red- 
brick, inserting  the  long  narrow  windows  then  the  rage.  He 
is  said  to  have  used  two  windows  from  the  chapter-house  in 
his  repairs;  but  he  had  so  little  sympathy  with  Gothic  archi- 
tecture that  it  is  difficult  to  see  where  he  employed  them. 


I'mi.ii'  IJissK,   IWsiior  ok  1  Ikkkkiikh 

From  an  cn^raTriiig  in  the  Ihiiisli  Museum. 


THE  PALACE  OF  HEREFORD    285 

Brown  Willis,  in  his  "  Historyof  the  Cathedral,"  says  that  Bisse 
spent  nearly  ^^3,000  on  the  work.  In  1721  Bisse  died  "  most 
universally  lamented,  being  ...  a  great  benefactor  to  his 
cathedral  church  and  especially  to  his  palace,  which  last  he 
in  a  manner  rebuilt."  He  was  succeeded  by  Benjamin 
Hoadley,  whose  "Measure  of  Obedience  "  had  created  a  great 
sensation ;  and  on  his  death,  the  see  was  given  to  Henry 
Egerton,  fifth  son  of  the  third  Earl  of  Bridgewater.  He 
found  the  chapel  of  St.  Mary  Magdalene  in  disrepair,  and  in 
1739  he  obtained  a  commission  from  the  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury  to  report  on  its  state.  The  commissioners — the 
dean,  two  canons,  one  of  the  principal  tenants  of  the  fee,  the 
steward,  and  a  joiner — considered  it  ruinous  and  useless,  as 
Duncomb  relates  in  his  "History  of  Herefordshire."  The 
bishop  ordered  destruction — to  save  the  £20  needed  for  repairs, 
every  one  said — and  great  was  the  delight  when  £50  was 
spent  in  taking  down  a  third  of  the  building,  so  firm  was  the 
cement.  The  work  was  stopped,  but,  in  spite  of  a  protest 
from  the  Society  of  Antiquaries,  resumed  amid  the  gibes  of 
the  papers,  such  as  the  one  quoted  by  Duncomb,  which  said 
that  it  was  done  "in  order  to  erect  a  more  polite  and  neat 
pile,  in  the  present  taste,  for  the  public  service,  in  which  it  is 
expected  the  generosity  of  the  noble  and  reverend  prelate  of 
that  see  (as  in  the  rest  of  his  life)  will  be  most  conspicuous." 
This  part  of  the  work  was,  however,  left  to  be  done  by 
Bishop  John  Butler,  in  1798.  The  present  chapel  is  a  very 
small  building  at  the  extreme  north-east  corner  of  the  ancient 
hall,  and  is  designated  as  "  neat  "  by  the  county  historian.  It 
has  been  much  improved  during  the  episcopacy  of  the  present 
bishop,  who  has  added  frescoes  and  a  screen  of  good  design, 
though  the  most  noteworthy  object  is  still  the  fine  Jacobean 
chair  of  the  bishop. 


286      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

The  next  considerable  change  was  made  in  1846  when 
Thomas  Musgrave,  afterwards  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
took  down  the  most  southerly  bay  of  the  hall  and  erected 
across  it  the  red-brick  wing  which  still  looks  so  new  against 
the  rest  of  the  buildings.  This  greatly  increased  the  comfort 
of  the  house,  and  especially  provided  more  bedrooms,  which 
had  been  rather  lacking  hitherto.  He  did  not  attempt  any 
restoration :  that  he  left  to  his  successor,  Renn  Dickson 
Hampden,  the  nominee  of  Lord  John  Russell  in  1847.  His 
election  was  strenuously  opposed  by  a  section,  which  held 
that  his  Bampton  Lectures  on  the  "  Scholastic  Philosophy  " 
were  unorthodox;  but  happily  for  the  diocese,  Hampden  came 
to  Hereford.  Energetic  in  his  diocese  he  also  set  to  work  on 
the  palace,  laid  down  the  pavement  in  the  hall,  inserted  the 
portrait  of  his  ancestor,  John  Hampden,  over  the  mantle- 
piece  there,  and,  above  all,  restored  the  ancient  porch — the 
only  bit  of  the  original  stonework  left.  The  work  was 
carried  further  by  his  successor,  James  Atlay  (1868 — 95),  to 
whom  the  hall  owes  its  present  neo-classical  ceiling  and 
decoration  that  is  in  such  strange  contrast  to  its  history. 

Heavily  as  time  has  laid  its  hands  on  the  palace,  altering, 
replacing,  creating,  it  has  not  hurt  its  calm.  In  the  garden, 
where  traces  of  old  buildings  linger  in  the  walls  and  where 
the  chapel  of  St.  Mary  Magdalene  still  shows,  the  doves  now 
flutter,  flying  up  between  their  cote  and  the  cathedral,  which 
stands  just  behind,  and  so  close  that  the  painted  windows 
glow  and  the  organ  sounds  clearly.  No  longer  dreaded  for 
its  prison,  or  hated  for  its  feudal  rights,  the  palace  now  more 
than  ever  before  speaks  of  all  that  goes  to  the  furthering  of 
the  interests  of  the  people  and  the  Church. 


«?e  (pciface  of  l^dk 


IF  a  traveller  from  Bath  had  reached  the  brow  of  the 
hill  where  the  wide  valley  of  Wells  and  Glastonbury 
suddenly  opens  at  his  feet,  and  looked  down  on  the 
buildings   lying    beneath    him,  he   would   have  seen, 
in  the  year  1206,  the  unfinished  cathedral,  and  beside  it  a 
house  used  by  the  Bishops  of  Bath  when  they  visited  Wells. 
No  towers,  no  west  front,  no  chapels,  cloisters,  chapter- 
house, Vicars'  Close  or  palace  were  yet  standing,   and  the 
waters  of  St.  Andrew's  Well,  which  now  fill  the  palace  moat, 
were    flowing    in    their    natural    channel.       Of  the   house 
which  was  the  predecessor   to  the  bishop's  palace  little  is 
known.     John  of  Tours,  Bishop  of  Bath  (1088— 1 122),  had 
built  himself  a  new  house  in  Wells  on  the  site  of  a  refectory, 
dormitory,  and   cloister  which  he  had  pulled  down.      The 
Wells  house  was,  according  to  Mr.  Edmund  Buckle,  only  a 
manor-house,    for   John    of    Tours    and    all   his   successors 
until  the  thirteenth  century  lived  at  Bath.     Bishop  Savaric 
was  styled  Bishop  of  Bath  and  Glastonbury.    This  remained 
the   official  title  until   1220,  when  Jocelin  dropped  that  of 
Glastonbury,   and    henceforward   styled   himself   Bishop   of 
Bath,  and  this  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  Wells  Chapter 
had  equal  rights  with  that  of  Bath  in  the  episcopal  elections. 
It  was  not  until  the  time  of  Bishop  Jocelin  that  Wells  became 
the  home  of  the  bishops  of  the  see. 

The   year  1206,  the  first  of  Jocelin's  episcopate  and  the 


288      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

seventh  of  the  reign  of  King  John,  was  a  significant  date  in 
the  history  of  Wells.  Unlike  his  predecessors  the  new 
bishop,  Jocelin,  was  a  native  of  Wells.  His  father  had  lands 
at  Lancherley,  about  two  miles  south-west  of  the  city,  where 
he  and  his  brother,  Hugh,  were  brought  up.  As  chaplain 
and  canon  Jocelin  spent  his  youth  there,  *'  rising,"  as  Canon 
Church  relates,  "  through  all  gradations  of  ecclesiastical 
office  to  the  bishop's  throne  in  the  church  of  his  home." 
He  set  himself  to  raise  the  status  of  his  native  city,  and  to 
strengthen  his  hand  against  Glastonbury  and  Bath.  One  of 
his  first  works  was  to  choose  a  site  and  prepare  grounds  for 
a  house  calculated  to  enhance  his  dignity.  In  1207  he 
obtained  King  John's  licence  to  enclose  a  park  on  the  south 
side  of  Wells,  and  he  was  stocking  his  park  with  wild  deer 
from  the  forests  of  Cheddar  and  Selwood  at  the  same  time 
that  he  was  building  the  west  front  of  the  cathedral.  His 
works  were  interrupted  by  political  troubles  in  the  kingdom. 
Jocelin  was  one  of  the  bishops  to  publish  the  interdict  of 
Pope  Innocent  III.,  and  was  banished  by  King  John, 
spending  about  five  years  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Bordeaux 
and  Castille.  His  companions  in  exile  were  his  brother, 
Hugh,  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  and  Elias  de  Derham,  the  famous 
architect  of  Salisbury  Cathedral,  whom  Matthew  Paris 
describes  as  one  of  the  "  incomparable  artificers  "  of  the 
shrine  of  St.  Thomas  at  Canterbury.  The  three  men  are 
thought  to  have  co-operated  in  plans  for  the  new  buildings 
at  Wells.  In  after  years  Elias  de  Derham  became  Jocelin's 
seneschal  or  steward  in  Wells,  and  may  have  assisted  him  as 
architect. 

Jocelin  returned  to  England  when  the  king  was  nominally 
reconciled  with  the  bishops  in  1213,  and  stood  by  the  side  of 
Archbishop  Stephen  Langton  at  Runnymede  when  John  was 


THE    PALACE    OF   WELLS  289 

forced  to  sign  the  Great  Charter.  It  was  JoceHn  who 
administered  the  oath  at  the  coronation  of  Henry  III.  at 
Gloucester,  the  new  king  being  then  ten  years  old.  This 
was  an  extension  of  privilege,  for  it  is  properly  the  function 
of  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  to  administer  the  coronation 
oath.  The  Bishop  of  Bath  and  Wells  has  the  right  to  walk 
by  the  king's  side,  under  his  canopy  of  state  in  the  coronation 
procession  in  Westminster  Abbey,  the  Bishop  of  Durham 
supporting  the  king  on  the  other  side.^ 

The  latter  part  of  Jocelin's  episcopate  he  spent  at  Wells, 
devoting  himself  to  building  the  cathedral  and  palace, 
and  organizing  the  work  of  the  cathedral  clergy.  The 
portions  of  the  present  palace  ascribed  to  Jocelin  by  Mr. 
Edmund  Buckle  are  "  the  vaulted  halls  of  entrance  and 
reception  on  the  ground  floor,  now  called  the  undercroft  and 
used  as  a  dining-room  on  state  occasions,  and  on  the  first 
floor  the  gallery  and  great  chamber,  solar,  and  oratory,  which 
form  the  central  block  of  the  present  building."  Part  of  the 
manor-house,  still  to  be  seen,  at  Wookey,  was  also  his  work. 
Jocelin  died  in  1242, "  full  of  days,"  says  Matthew  Paris,  "  and 
commendable  in  life  and  character."  He  was  buried  before 
the  high  altar  of  the  cathedral,  under  a  marble  tomb  which 
he  had  erected  during  his  lifetime.  The  place  of  his  burial 
had  been  carefully  planned  beforehand.  Jocelin  was  the 
first  bishop  of  this  see  to  be  buried  in  Wells  Cathedral. 
This  was  a  bold  infringement  of  the  privileges  claimed  by  the 
monks  of  Bath,  their  abbey  having  been  for  the  last  150 
years  the  burial-place  of  the  bishops.      The  Wells   canons 

'  This  was  the  order  observed  at  the  coronation  of  King  Edward  VII., 
the  Bishop  of  Bath  and  Wells  being  on  his  left  hand  and  the  Bishop  of 
Durham  on  his  right.  The  custom  was  broken  at  the  coronations  of 
Henry  VII.,  of  William  and  Mary,  and  Anne. 

E.E.P.  U 


290      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

expected  opposition  from  the  Bath  Chapter,  and  accordingly 
gave  no  notification  of  JoceHn's  death  until  after  the  burial. 
But  while  they  were  rejoicing  in  possessing  for  the  first  time 
the  tomb  of  a  bishop,  their  enemies,  the  monks  of  Bath, 
determined  to  forestall  them  in  the  choice  of  a  candidate  for 
the  vacant  see,  and  hastily  sent  a  deputation  to  Henry  III. 
to  obtain  licence  for  themselves  alone  to  elect  a  new  bishop 
without  the  co-operation  of  the  Wells  Chapter.  This  was 
the  beginning  of  the  last  long  strife  between  the  two 
chapters;  but  Jocelin  had  secured  to  his  native  town  the 
pre-eminence  he  had  given  it  in  his  lifetime.  He  had 
obtained  permission  from  Pope  Honorius  III.  to  add  Wells 
to  his  style  ;  but  although  he  never  signed  himself  "  Bishop 
of  Bath  and  Wells,"  his  successor,  Roger,  was  able  to  adopt 
the  new  style  within  four  months  after  his  accession  in  1244, 
Pope  Innocent  IV.  sanctioning  the  change  and  assuring  to 
Wells  equal  rights  in  all  respects  with  Bath. 

Henceforward  the  palace  of  Wells  was  the  home  of 
Jocelin's  successors  in  this  see. 

Robert,  Lord  of  Acton  Burnell  in  Shropshire,  the  great 
lawyer  and  chancellor  of  Edward  I.,  was  the  next  bishop  to 
add  to  Jocelin's  palace.  He  had  obtained  vast  wealth  during 
his  political  career,  providing  his  friends  and  relatives  with 
lands,  and  himself  possessing  estates  in  nineteen  counties. 
When  the  king  and  his  consort,  Eleanor,  were  being  enter- 
tained, in  1277,  by  the  monks  of  Glastonbury,  doubtless 
Bishop  Burnell  was  inspired  to  add  to  his  own  house  a  hall 
capacious  and  magnificent  enough  to  grace  a  royal  court. 
Canon  Church  writes :  "  At  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  century 
Burnell  raised  on  the  south  side  of  Jocelin's  building  a  stately 
banqueting  hall — of  which  the  four  towers,  the  northern  side, 
and  the  chapel  remain  still  witnessing  to  the  magnificence  of 


THE    PALACE   OF   WELLS  291 

the  builder."  Burnell's  chapel  is  still  used  as  a  bishop's 
private  chapel,  but  the  hall  has  stood  in  ruins  since  the 
Reformation.  This  was  the  hall  where  the  Court  of 
Edward  IIL  and  Queen  Philippa  were  to  hold  their  revels 
some  fifty  years  later  ;  where  the  Bishops  of  Wells  were  to  rule 
in  state,  and  where  the  trial  of  the  last  Abbot  of  Glastonbury 
was  to  be  the  prelude  to  the  destruction  wreaked  upon  it  at 
the  Reformation.  Burnell  was  a  worldly  prelate,  too  much 
involved  in  State  affairs  to  be  resident  long  at  Wells.  He 
was  warden  of  the  Welsh  marches,  comrade  of  the  king  in 
Gascony  and  in  the  Scottish  wars,  and  died  in  1292  at 
Berwick-upon-Tweed.  But  though  little  resident  he  had 
encouraged  progress  in  his  cathedral  city — by  his  riches,  by 
the  grant  of  indulgences  in  return  for  work  upon  the  fabric 
of  the  cathedral,  by  the  gift  of  four  advowsons  to  the  chapter, 
and,  above  all,  by  the  erection  of  the  great  hall  of  the  palace. 
Forty  years  after  the  death  of  Robert  Burnell,  Wells  Palace 
was  honoured  by  a  royal  visit.  In  1332 — 3,  Edward  IIL 
with  his  young  wife,  Philippa  of  Hainault,  a  bride  of  three 
years'  standing,  and  then  aged  nineteen,  were  the  guests  of 
Bishop  Ralph  of  Shrewsbury,  holding  their  Court  in  his 
palace  between  Christmas  and  Epiphany.  The  chronicles 
of  the  reign  tell  of  a  "wonderful  and  sumptuous"  outlay  on 
the  occasion,  when  the  palace  must  have  been  the  scene  of 
banquets  and  tournaments.  King  Edward  was  then  aged 
twenty-two,  and  comely,  says  a  contemporary  chronicler, 
"  his  face  like  the  face  of  a  god,  wherefrom  so  marvellous 
grace  shone  forth  that  whosoever  openly  considered  his 
countenance  or  dreamed  thereof  by  night  conceived  a  sure 
hope  of  pleasant  solace  and  good  fortune  that  day,"  The 
young  queen  was  "tall  and  straight,  wise,  gladsome,  free- 
handed,   and    courteous."       No   doubt    they    brought    their 

U   2 


292      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

hawks   and  their  hounds  with  them  to  Wells,  and  a  rich 

display  of  jewels  and  silken  robes  stiff  with  gold  ;  and  had 

Froissart  been  present  at  those  Christmas  festivities  we  might 

have  had  a  tale  of  revels  such  as  Edward  had  led  at  Windsor, 

clad  in  white  and  silver,  wearing  broidery  with  his  motto : — 

"  Hay,  hay,  the  whit^  swan  ! 
By  Goddes  soul  I  am  thy  man  ! " 

Some  idea  of  the  ceremonies  of  that  time  is  given  by  the 
contemporary  description  of  a  tournament  which  took  place 
in  the  streets  of  London  in  the  September  preceding  the 
Christmas  spent  at  Wells.  "The  king  and  other  knights 
appeared  riding,  masked  as  Tartars,  and  each  knight  had  on 
his  right  hand  one  lady,  leading  her  by  a  silver  chain.  The 
ladies  were  dressed  in  tunics  of  red  velvet,  with  hoods  of 
white  camel's  hair.  More  than  sixty  armed  men  in  uniform 
preceded,  and  there  followed  horsemen  richly  caparisoned; 
thus  they  passed  with  trumpets  and  many  kinds  of  instru- 
ments." On  the  following  day  there  was  a  tournament, 
sixteen  knights  defending  a  mock  fortress  from  attack.  Very 
possibly  similar  dresses  and  pageantry  figured  in  the  festivities 
at  Wells  :  "  Ubifiebant  multa  mirabilia  sumphiosa." 

No  explanation  of  the  purpose  of  the  royal  visit  has  been 
given  save  that  suggested  by  Canon  Church,  that  the  fame 
of  the  new  chapter-house,  with  its  noble  ascent  of  stairs, 
and  of  the  other  great  buildings  in  Wells,  might  have 
attracted  them  thither.  Edward's  love  of  building  is  well 
known.  Some  years  later,  in  1344,  he  had  the  Round  Tower 
built  at  Windsor,  with  such  speed  that  it  was  finished  in  ten 
months,  hundreds  of  labourers  being  pressed  into  the  work. 
The  young  king's  interest  in  architecture  must  have  been 
stimulated  by  his  visit  to  Wells,  and  by  converse  with  his 
host,  Bishop  Ralph, 


THE    PALACE   OF   WELLS  293 

Queen  Philippa's  memory  was  long  revered  by  the  clergy 
there.  Nearly  forty  years  later  a  new  Mass  was  instituted  to 
be  said  daily  for  her  soul,  the  performance  of  this  Mass  being 
imposed  by  Bishop  John  Harewell  (1366 — 86)  on  the  canons 
of  Staverdale.  For  every  omission  they  were  bound  to  pay 
yearly,  on  St.  Andrew's  Day,  20s.  to  the  bishop's  alms,  3s.  4d. 
to  the  bishop  in  his  palace  at  Wells,  and  ^s.  4^.  to  the  dean 
and  chapter  in  the  cathedral. 

The  entertainment  of  these  popular  sovereigns,  in  the  fresh 
bloom  of  their  youth  and  gaiety,  must  have  added  prestige 
to  the  Wells  Palace,  and  have  left  a  brilliant  picture  in  the 
minds  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  quiet  city. 

Bishop  Ralph  of  Shrewsbury  (1329 — 63),  the  third  of 
the  chief  builders  of  the  palace  of  Wells,  obtained  from  his 
late  guest,  Edward  III.,  a  licence  to  embattle  and  fortify  it. 
The  grant  made  in  March,  1340 — i,  gave  licence  "  For 
the  glory  of  God,  the  honour  of  the  cathedral  church  of 
Wells,  and  the  saints  whose  bodies  repose  therein,  and  the 
security  and  quiet  of  the  canons  and  ministers  resident  there, 
for  Ralph,  Bishop  of  Bath  and  Wells,  to  build  a  wall  round 
the  churchyard  and  the  precinct  of  the  houses  of  himself 
and  of  the  canons,  and  to  crenellate  and  make  towers  in 
such  wall.  He  is  to  make  doors  and  posterns  in  the  wall 
where  necessary,  and  to  cause  any  streets  enclosed  to  be 
diverted  in  such  manner  as  shall  be  most  to  public  con- 
venience ;  and  the  doors  and  posterns  to  be  open  for 
thoroughfare  from  dawn  to  night." 

Before  Bishop  Ralph's  time,  the  waters  of  St.  Andrew's 
fountain  had  flowed  in  their  natural  channel.  He  now 
diverted  them  to  form  a  moat  round  the  area  of  the  palace 
and  the  palace  courts ;  and  on  the  embankment  within  the 
moat   were   raised   crenellated   walls   with    bastions   at   the 


294      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

angles,  and  an  entrance  gate-house,  defended  by  portcullis 
and  drawbridge.  The  slits  for  the  portcullis  and  the  chains 
of  the  drawbridge  are  still  to  be  seen.  In  one  of  these 
bastions  was  a  prison  for  criminous  clerks,  subsequently 
known  as  the  Cow-house  and  the  Stock-house.  The  keeper 
of  the  bishop's  park  had  the  duty  of  watching  the  prison. 
The  bishop's  palace  was  now  his  castle,  which  he  could  defend 
if  need  were,  against  turbulent  burghers.  The  townspeople  of 
Wells  were  generally  on  good  terms  with  their  mesne  lord, 
the  bishop,  to  whom  they  paid  rents,  and  who  received  the 
chattels  of  condemned  persons  and  fugitives  ;  but  a  spirit  of 
independence  was  growing  in  the  fourteenth  century.  The 
citizens  were  irritated  by  the  revocation  of  a  charter  which 
they  had  just  purchased.  It  had  contained  a  clause  exempt- 
ing them  from  all  labour  upon  castles,  houses,  walls,  ditches, 
and  other  public  works ;  and  Canon  Church  suggests  that 
enforced  labour  on  the  fortification  of  the  palace  had  pro- 
duced friction  between  the  bishop  and  the  citizens.  A  riot 
broke  out  in  1342 — 3,  the  citizens  resisting  the  levy  of  tolls 
by  the  bishop's  officers.  Some  of  the  bishop's  men  were 
taken  and  kept  in  prison  until,  under  compulsion,  they 
promised  to  pay  certain  sums  of  money.  The  king  sent 
commissioners  to  inquire  into  the  trouble,  and  the  bishop's 
rights  were  upheld  by  the  judgment  of  the  court,  his  damages 
being  assessed  at  £"3,000,  but  it  does  not  appear  whether  the 
bishop  ever  received  this  enormous  fine. 

Within  the  palace,  life  was  organized  and  ceremonious. 
The  janitor,  or  door-keeper,  was  at  this  time  an  important 
personage,  installed  in  his  office  with  much  circumstance. 
In  1330  six  burgesses  of  Wells  stood  surety  for  a  new  janitor, 
Roger  of  Ashbury,  their  fellow- burgess,  that  he  would  faith- 
fully serve  the  bishop  in  that  office.    There  was  also  a  keeper 


THE    PALACE   OF   WELLS  295 

of  the  palace,  whose  duty  it  was  "  to  discover,  correct,  and 
punish  any  excesses,  crimes,  or  faults  whatsoever  within  the 
palace  or  court,  the  punishment  of  which  belonged  to  the 
bishop  by  right."  In  his  palace-chapel  Bishop  Ralph 
instituted  officials  and  clergy  and  received  oaths  of  allegiance. 
On  one  occasion  a  certain  "  Robert  atte  Boxe  "  came  into  his 
chapel,  and,  in  the  presence  of  the  bishop  and  two  of  his 
officials,  made  oath  never  to  aid  or  favour  John  de  Actone, 
knight,  who  was  the  bishop's  enemy,  but  rather  to  disclose 
and  hinder  any  attempts  to  the  bishop's  harm.  Another  record 
depicts  Bishop  Ralph  as  solemnly  seated  in  the  hall  of  his 
palace  when  there  were  admitted  to  his  presence  the  dean, 
the  precentor,  and  eight  other  canons,  who  presented  him 
with  a  request  to  attend  the  next  chapter,  couched  in  a  stiff 
and  monitory  tone.  Conflicts  between  the  dean  and  chapter 
and  the  bishop  had  continued  from  the  time  of  Bishop 
Drokensford,  Ralph's  predecessor,  when  the  fame  of  Dean 
Godelee  had  eclipsed  the  bishop's  importance,  and  this  scene 
marks  the  strained  relations  between  the  bishop  and  the 
chapter-house. 

It  was  the  custom  of  the  vicars  to  bring  offerings  in  person 
into  the  presence  of  the  bishop  seated  in  his  hall,  and  he 
would  graciously  receive  such  gifts,  as,  for  instance,  "two 
loaves,  two  pigs,  and  two  bottles  of  mead,"  and  order  them 
to  be  distributed  among  the  poor.  Bishop  Ralph  spent  his 
life  and  energies  in  his  own  diocese,  and  lived  to  a  great  age. 
His  long  and  detailed  register  attests  his  activity  there. 
During  the  scourge  of  the  Black  Death,  which  carried  off 
numbers  of  his  clergy,  he  remained  at  his  post  providing  for 
the  spiritual  needs  of  the  sufferers.  He  issued  a  letter  allow- 
ing a  layman  or  a  woman  to  hear  the  confessions  of  the 
dying   and  admitting  such  confession  to  be  efficacious.     A 


296      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL   PALACES 

hundred  years  after  his  death  his  obit  was  still  being  observed 
at  his  tomb  in  the  cathedral,  for  in  1461,  in  the  accounts  of 
the  vicars  of  the  cathedral,  an  entry  appears  for  the  use  of 
wax  upon  the  obit  of  Bishop  Ralph  of  Shrewsbury.  He  was 
a  special  benefactor  of  the  vicars-choral,  whose  houses  he 
had  first  planned  and  built  in  the  famous  Vicars'  Close.  In 
the  hall  of  the  Vicars'  Close  is  a  painting  representing 
Bishop  Ralph  sitting  on  his  throne,  the  vicars  kneeling 
before  him.  His  marble  effigy  is  in  the  north  choir  aisle  of 
the  cathedral.  "  He  lies  vested  in  his  episcopal  ornaments, 
the  mitre,  gloves,  maniple,  the  apparel  round  the  neck,  and 
the  vexillum  round  the  crozier." 

The  interior  of  the  palace  at  the  end  of  the  fourteenth 
century  was  not  bare  and  comfortless.  The  walls  were 
covered  with  tapestry,  the  backs  of  the  chairs  of  state  were 
cushioned  and  covered  with  fine  embroidery,  each  chamber 
had  a  different  suit  of  hangings,  and  the  seats  were  supplied 
with  feather  cushions.  Two  beds  are  particularly  named 
in  the  will  of  Bishop  Erghum,  proved  in  1400,  which  supplies 
these  details  as  to  furniture  :  "  a  green  bed  with  white  lilies, 
and  a  red  bed  with  the  curtains  and  sheets  and  all  apparel." 
Such  beds  cost  vast  sums  in  those  days.  In  1369,  on  Queen 
Philippa's  death,  a  sum  worth  ^^1,000  of  our  money  was  paid 
for  her  bed,  and  entries  in  the  royal  accounts  show  that  the 
king  paid  £3,000  of  modern  money  for  the  queen's  bed  of 
green  velvet,  embroidered  in  gold,  with  red  sirens  bearing 
a  shield  with  the  arms  of  England  and  Hainault.  If  the 
furnishing  of  the  Wells  Palace  was  on  a  similar,  though 
possibly  less  sumptuous,  scale,  the  value  of  the  fittings  must 
have  been  immense.  Silver  "  charjours,"  bowls,  salt-cellars, 
and  spice-plates,  finely  chased,  are  enumerated  in  Bishop 
Erghum's  will ;  and  a  certain  piece  of  tapestry,  with  the  image 


THE    PALACE    OF   WELLS  297 

of  St.  John,  he  bequeathed  to  the  cathedral  "  to  be  placed 
under  the  feet  of  the  bishop  when  he  celebrates  there."  Such 
were  the  rich  appointments  of  the  palace  in  the  year  1400 ; 
and  sumptuous  banquets  were  given  in  the  great  hall  of 
Robert  Burnell  in  the  years  1424 — 5. 

A  happy  chance  has  preserved  a  verbatim  account  of  two 
fifteenth-century  banquets  served  in  the  hall  of  the  bishop's 
palace,  of  which  Dr.  F.  A.  Gasquet  has  given  in  substance 
the  following  description  : — 

A  famous  cook  of  unknown  name  collected  in  his  note-book 
a  set  of  menus  and  a  brief  note  of  the  occasion  upon  which 
the  banquet  described  was  served  up.  This  note-book  has 
survived  till  the  present  day,  and  is  to  be  seen  in  the  MSS. 
Room  of  the  British  Museum  (Harl.  MS.  279). 

One  banquet  took  place  at  the  funeral  of  Bishop  Bubwith, 
and  the  other  at  the  installation  of  his  successor,  Bishop  John 
Stafford. 

The  date  of  the  first  dinner  was  December  4,  1424.  On 
the  preceding  October  27  Bishop  Bubwith  had  died.  Over 
a  month,  therefore,  had  elapsed  before  the  funeral.  The 
ceremony  was  celebrated  with  customary  pomp.  A  great 
concourse  of  people,  distinguished  clergy,  laymen  and  their 
followings,  and  monks  in  large  numbers  assembled  at  Wells 
for  the  occasion.  Nicholas  Bubwith  had  been  a  man  of 
note.  Bishop  of  London  and  Lord  Treasurer  of  England,  and 
he  had  taken  part  after  the  Council  of  Constance  in  the 
election  of  Pope  Martin  V.  He  was  buried  in  his  chantry, 
still  to  be  seen  with  its  screen  of  light  and  elaborate  tracery, 
in  the  nave  of  the  cathedral,  and  after  the  funeral  the 
ecclesiastics  repaired  to  the  great  hall  of  the  palace,  where  the 
dinner  described  in  the  menu  was  served.  The  season  of 
the  Church  on  this  occasion  was  Advent,  and  accordingly  a 


298      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

special  dinner  was  provided  for  the  monks,  who  had  at  this 
time  to  abstain  from  meat.  Before  the  secular  clergy  and 
laymen  a  first  course  was  set  consisting  almost  wholly  of 
heavy  joints  of  meat  and  game  ;  there  is  no  mention  of 
vegetables  beyond  the  herbs  used  for  flavouring.  The  second 
course  consisted  chiefly  of  game,  ending  with  a  "payn  puffe" 
or  pastry  puff",  "  a  colde  bakemete  "  or  cold  fruit-pie,  and 
"irchouns" — that  is,  pork  prepared  with  spikes  made  of 
almonds  to  look  like  a  hedgehog. 

The  second  banquet  was  given  nine  months  later,  on 
September  i6,  1425,  to  celebrate  Bishop  John  Stafford's 
installation.  On  this  occasion  no  fast  was  being  observed, 
and  there  was  no  provision  for  a  '*  dtner  maigre.'"  Two 
dinners  were,  however,  prepared — one  for  tiie  more  honoured 
guests,  and  the  other  for  those  who  had  seats  in  the  lower  part 
of  the  hall.  Each  course  concluded  with  a  "  sotelte " 
(subtlety),  a  confection  in  sugar  and  paste,  which  generally 
pointed  some  allusion  to  the  circumstances  of  the  feast.  A 
doctor-of-law,  an  eagle,  and  a  Saint  Andrew  figured  at  this 
festivity.  The  lawyer  apparently  referred  to  the  new  bishop's 
early  profession,  the  eagle  was  the  emblem  of  St.  John,  his 
namesake,  and  St.  Andrew  was  the  patron  saint  of  the 
church  of  his  new  see.  The  "  sotelte  of  Sent  Andrewe  "  was 
repeated  at  another  installation  feast  of  the  same  bishop 
when  he  was  translated  to  Canterbury,  and  is  then  fully 
described  as  "  Saint  Andrew  sitting  on  his  high  altar  in  state 
with  beams  of  gold.  Before  him  kneeling  the  bishop  in 
priestly  robes,  his  crosier-bearer  kneeling  behind  him  coped." 
It  is  evident  that  the  culinary  art  was  not  neglected  in  the 
episcopal  establishment.  The  furnishing  of  the  palace 
kitchen  must  have  been  ample  to  allow  of  so  many  as  a 
dozen  joints  being  roasted  together.      The  various  dishes  of 


THE   PALACE   OF   WELLS  299 

one  course  were  probably  not  served  up  one  after  another, 
but  various  meats  and  birds  were  dished  up  together  that 
every  one  might  make  his  choice.  One  can  picture  the  army 
of  serving-men  that  would  be  needed  to  prepare  these 
elaborate  feasts.  The  head  cook  was  a  professional,  who 
probably  came  down  from  London  for  both  occasions ;  his 
services  were  in  great  request,  his  menu-book  including  the 
feast  of  the  coronation  of  King  Henry  IV,  in  1399,  royal 
dinners  at  Winchester  and  elsewhere,  the  installation  feast  of 
Bishop  John  Chandler  of  Salisbury  in  1417,  and  many  other 
notable  banquets. 

Only  twenty-five  years  previously,  in  1400,  a  bull  had  been 
sent  to  the  Dean  and  Chapter  of  Wells  by  Pope  Boniface  IX. 
forbidding  the  expenditure  of  vast  sums,  150  or  200  marks,  on 
feasting  the  bishop  and  the  dean  and  chapter,  as  had  been  the 
custom  whenever  a  new  canon  came  into  residence.  This 
feasting  had  produced  disputes  and  scandal,  and  was  to  be 
altogether  abolished.  But  as  this  papal  mandate  did  not 
affect  the  bishops,  the  banquets  in  the  episcopal  palace 
were  not  discontinued. 

The  last  great  mediaeval  Bishop  of  Wells  who  ruled  in  the 
palace,  to  which  he  put  the  finishing  touches,  was  Thomas  of 
Bekynton.  Born  at  Beckington,  in  Somersetshire,  from 
which  village  he  took  his  name,  a  boy  at  Winchester,  a 
scholar  and  fellow  of  New  College,  Oxford,  and  then  Canon 
of  Wells,  he  rose  partly  under  William  of  Wykeham's 
influence  to  high  authority.  He  was  secretary  and  reader  to 
the  young  King  Henry  VI.,  a  copy  of  his  official  Letters  being 
still  preserved  in  a  beautiful  volume  in  Lambeth  Palace 
Library  (published  by  G.  Williams  in  the  Eolls  Series). 
Before  his  appointment  to  the  bishopric  he  served  on  a 
delicate  diplomatic  mission  to  the  Count  of  Armagnac,  to 


300      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL   PALACES 

negotiate  a  marriage  between  Henry  VI .  and  one  of  the 
count's  daughters  whose  likenesses  he  was  first  to  obtain  and 
submit  to  the  king.  In  1443  he  was  consecrated  Bishop  of 
Bath  and  Wells  in  the  old  church  of  the  newly  founded 
College  of  Eton,  and  held  his  inaugural  banquet  within  the 
new  college  buildings.  He  was  deeply  interested  in  the 
foundation  of  Eton  College,  which  he  advised  Henry  VI.  to 
model  on  Wykeham's  School  at  Winchester. 

He  was  a  magnificent  prelate,  and  spent  no  less  than  6,000 
marks  in  building  and  in  repairing  different  houses  belonging 
to  the  bishopric.  The  prevalence  of  his  rebus,  "  a  flaming 
beacon  and  a  tun,"  about  Wells,  attests  his  work  as  a  builder. 
Shields  bearing  his  arms  were  discovered  during  the  restora- 
tion of  the  palace,  and  were  built  into  the  walls  of  the  under- 
croft and  the  ground-floor  gallery  in  the  time  of  Bishop 
Hervey ;  his  arms  are  also  to  be  seen  on  the  chimneys  of  the 
Vicars'  Close  and  on  the  outer  gate-house  forming  the  entrance 
to  the  park  from  the  market-place,  now  called  the  Bishop's 
Eye.  Mr.  Edmund  Buckle  writes  :  "  On  the  north  side  of  the 
great  hall  Bekynton  made  a  place  of  trees,  and  he  added  to 
the  palace  itself  a  cloister,  a  parlour,  and  guest-chambers, 
together  with  a  very  large  kitchen,  at  the  great  cost  of  over 
£1,000,  with  conduits  of  water  to  the  kitchen,  buttery,  cellar, 
bake-house,  and  tanks  for  breeding  fish."  He  was  an 
eminently  practical  man,  providing  not  only  for  his  own 
household,  but  for  the  larger  community  outside  his  palace. 
His  best  remembered  act  is  his  gift  to  the  citizens  of  Wells 
of  a  bountiful  supply  of  water  from  the  great  spring  called 
St.  Andrew's  Well,  within  the  palace  precincts.  He  allowed 
the  burgesses  to  build,  at  his  expense,  a  head  for  a  water-con- 
duit upon  a  spot  chosen  by  himself  in  his  garden  near  the  well, 
and  to  carry  thence,  at  their  expense,  pipes  leading  the  water 


THE    PALACE   OF   WELLS  301 

on  the  one  side  to  the  city  as  far  as  the  high  cross  in  the 
market-place,  and  on  the  other  side  to  various  parts  of  the 
palace.  The  details  of  the  transaction  were  exact  and  com- 
plete, provision  being  made  for  the  need  of  emptying,  cleaning, 
and  refilling  the  palace  moat,  and  for  inspecting  and  cleaning 
the  well-head,  which  was  to  have  one  door  and  two  keys,  the 
bishop  keeping  the  one  and  the  burgesses  the  other.  In 
return  for  this  favour  the  "  master  and  burgesses  "  of  Wells 
undertook  for  themselves  and  their  successors  to  visit  once  a 
year  the  place  where  the  bishop  was  to  be  buried  in  the 
cathedral,  and  to  offer  prayers  for  his  soul.  Finally  he  added 
a  spiritual  to  this  temporal  benefit,  "  trusting  in  the  mercy  of 
God  and  the  merits  of  St.  Peter,  St.  Paul,  and  St.  Andrew,  his 
patrons,  he  granted  forty  days'  indulgence  for  every  such  visit." 
From  the  pen  of  Thomas  Chaundler,  a  younger  contem- 
porary of  Bishop  Bekynton,  Chancellor  of  Wells  in  1452, 
and  in  1461  Chancellor  of  Oxford,  there  is  a  glowing  account 
of  the  palace  at  this  time,  written  in  Latin,  in  the  form  of 
a  dialogue.  An  Oxford  visitor  approaching  Wells  calls  it  a 
village,  and  his  guide  answers  :  "  You  should  call  it  rather  a 
city  could  you  see  all  the  beauty  and  neatness  that  is  within 
it.  That  most  beautiful  church  which  we  discern  at  a 
distance  contains  the  episcopal  chair  of  a  munificent  prelate. 
It  has  also  adjoining  to  it  an  extensive  palace  adorned  with 
wonderful  splendour,  surrounded  with  flowing  waters,  bul- 
warked by  its  circlet  of  battlemented  walls  and  towers, 
in  which  dwells  the  most  dignified  and  learned  bishop, 
Thomas,  the  first  of  that  name.  'That  the  clergy  here  are 
religious  in  their  manners,  honest  in  their  lives,  noble  in 
hospitality,  affable  and  agreeable  to  strangers,  and  to  all 
benevolent,  you  will  first  discover  from  observation  and 
then  learn  from  experience,  for  they  are  accustomed  to  wait 


302      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

on  strangers  and  travellers  with  every  office  of  humanity, 
and  they  seem  to  contend  who  shall  first  invite  anyone  and 
prevail  on  him  to  partake  of  their  hospitality.  Is  not  this 
city  rightly  called  Wells,  where  fountains  gush  out  on  every 
side,  which  both  make  and  beautify  the  city  ?  " 

In  a  letter  from  Chaundler  to  Bekynton,  preserved  in  the 
library  of  Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  there  is  a  drawing  of 
a  chamber  in  the  palace.  The  floor  is  represented  as  tiled  in 
dark  and  light  squares,  and  the  wall  covered  with  painting  of 
flowers,  leaves,  and  conventional  designs.  Bishop  Bekynton 
is  seated  on  a  throne  under  a  canopy  with  a  jewelled  mitre 
suspended  over  his  head,  which  is  covered  with  a  skull-cap. 
His  right  hand  is  raised  in  the  act  of  blessing.  On  his  right 
stands  his  chaplain  with  the  crosier  in  his  left  hand  and  a  book 
or  bag  in  his  right,  and  kneeling  before  the  bishop  is  the 
author,  Chaundler,  in  the  act  of  presenting  a  book  to  his 
patron.  The  bishop's  face  is  stern  and  serious  and  has  the 
lines  of  age.  Chaundler  has  a  younger  and  rounder  face. 
It  is  thought  that  the  three  heads  are  portraits — that  of 
Bekynton  bearing  a  resemblance  to  the  efligy  on  his  tomb. 

His  monument  is  in  the  south  choir  aisle  of  the  cathedral, 
and  was  ready  prepared  and  consecrated  by  himself  thirteen 
years  before  his  death.  In  an  early  morning  of  January, 
1452,  a  vast  congregation  assembled  in  the  cathedral  to 
witness  the  bishop  vested  in  the  robes  in  which  he  desired 
to  be  buried,  consecrating  his  own  tomb.  The  Rev.  P. 
Dearmer  has  described  this  monument :  "A  carved  skeleton 
corpse  lies  in  gorgeous  vestments  beneath  the  portrait  efligy 
resting  on  the  upper  slab.  The  carving  of  the  arcade 
supporting  this  slab  is  very  beautiful,  delicately  wrought 
wings  of  angels  spreading  over  the  arches  so  as  to  fill  the 
spandrels.      Traces  of   colour  are  strongly  marked  on  the 


THE    PALACE   OF   WELLS  303 

tomb  and  on  the  canopy  from  which  it  has  been  divided. 
The  latter  was  dragged  from  its  place,  when  the  chapel  was 
restored,  and  set  up  in  St.  Calixtus'  Chapel,  where  it  is  still 
to  be  seen,"  In  1465,  thirteen  years  after  the  consecration 
of  his  tomb.  Bishop  Bekynton  died,  aged  about  seventy-five 
years. 

The  bequests  in  his  will  were  magnanimous  and  princely. 
Among  great  legacies  to  his  own  cathedral,  to  Bath,  to  New 
College,  Oxford,  and  the  foundation  of  annual  scholarships 
to  Oxford  for  ten  priests  of  his  diocese,  the  poor  of  his  own 
household   were  not  forgotten.      He  made  special  mention 
of  the   boys  who  served  in    his   private   chapel  within   the 
palace.      "  I   bequeath  to    ten  poor  scholars,  not  having  a 
sufficient    exhibition    in    the    University    of  Oxford,    to    be 
selected  from  my  diocese,  lod.  each  weekly.     And  I  will  that 
in  this  bequest  the  poor  boys  of  my  chapel,  who  are  now  there 
or  who  will  be  at  the  time  of  my  death,  of  whatever  diocese 
they  may  be,  be  preferred  before  others  for  this  exhibition." 
He  left  ^Tioo  to  his  successor  for  the  dilapidations  of  the 
palace,  although,  as  he  remarks,   he  had  received   nothing 
from  his  predecessor.  Bishop  Stafford.     He  expressed  in  his 
will  his  anger  at  the  latter's  neglect.     "  Stafford,"  he  said, 
"  had  received  1,600  marks   for  dilapidations   from  Bishop 
Nicholas  Bub  with  of  good  memory,  and  yet  laid  out  nothing 
in  repairs  during  his  whole  time,  which  was  eighteen  years. 
Timber  there  was  cut  down  for  repairs,  but  sold,  and  the 
money   put   to    his    private    use."      There    is    mention    in 
Bekynton's  will  of  "  my  great  and  precious  Bible,  written 
in  four  volumes,  which  I  will  shall  be  chained  in  the  library 
of  Winchester  College  [i.e.,  New  College],  Oxford,  for  the 
use    of    those    wishing    to    study    in    the    same."        Bishop 
Bekynton's  Bible  is  still  a  possession  of  New  College.     To 


304      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

Winchester  Cathedral  he  left  his  large  silver  pomander — a 
vessel  like  an  apple,  to  be  filled  with  warm  water,  for  the 
priest  to  warm  his  fingers  during  excessive  cold  to  prevent 
accidents  in  handling  the  chalice.  From  the  opening  sen- 
tence— "  I  will  that  my  funeral  expenses  shall  be  moderate, 
that  they  shall  be  rather  in  the  recreation  and  relief  of  the 
poor  than  in  the  solace  of  the  rich  and  powerful" — to  the 
end  of  the  lengthy  testament  there  breathes  the  spirit  of  the 
practical  administrator  and  the  large-hearted  but  prudent 
man  of  busines?. 

The  palace  had  now  reached  its  zenith,  and  the  story  of 
its  decline  begins  with  the  death  of  Bekynton.  A  series  of 
statesmen-bishops  followed  in  close  succession,  who  neglected 
the  palace,  preferring  to  live  in  king's  Courts.  Bishops 
Stillington,  Fox,  and  King  ceased  to  make  the  Wells  Palace 
their  home ;  Hadrian  de  Castello  (1504 — 18)  resided  at 
Rome,  and  never  visited  England  after  his  translation  to  the 
see  of  Wells.  Cardinal  Wolsey  followed  (from  1518 — 1523), 
holding  in  his  own  person  the  Archbishopric  of  York  and 
the  Bishopric  of  Bath  and  Wells. 

Only  two  events  concerning  the  palace  are  known  to  have 
occurred  during  this  period. 

During  the  Wars  of  the  Roses  there  was  a  moment, 
between  Michaelmas,  1469 — 1470,  when  two  hostile  parties 
passed  through  Wells,  possibly  meeting  there  during  a  truce. 
Canon  Church  has  discovered  an  entry  in  the  account-roll  of 
the  escheator  of  the  church  of  Wells  for  that  year,  from 
which  it  appears  that  King  Edward  IV.  had  made  an  offering 
there  of  los.,  the  Duke  of  Clarence,  Lady  Isabel,  Duchess  of 
Clarence,  and  the  Earl  of  Warwick  had  each  given  5s.,  either 
towards  the  fabric  fund  or  at  the  shrine  of  Our  Lady. 
Bishop    Stillington,  then    lord   privy    seal,   and  the  king's 


THE    PALACE    OF   WELLS  305 

private  agent,  would  have  ordered  the  gates  of  Wells  to  be 
opened  to  Edward.  Canon  Church  suggests  that  the  king 
and  his  retinue  were  lodged  at  the  palace  while  the  Earl  of 
Warwick  was  at  the  deanery,  but  little  light  has  been  thrown 
on  this  incident. 

The  palace  had  fallen  into  disrepair  by  the  year  1497,  the 
third  of  Bishop  King's  episcopate.  Oliver  King  (1495 — 
1503)  Secretary  of  State  to  Henry  VII.,  had  been  appointed 
to  the  Bishopric  of  Bath  and  Wells  for  three  years  before  he 
thought  of  visiting  Wells,  In  the  autumn  of  1497  he 
journeyed  westward  from  London  with  King  Henry  VII. 
and  30,000  armed  men,  bent  upon  subduing  Perkin  War- 
beck's  rebellion — Warbeck  had  landed  at  Whitesand  Bay, 
Cornwall,  and  passed  with  3,000  followers  to  Taunton.  The 
king  was  to  pass  through  Wells  on  his  way  to  Taunton,  and 
the  bishop  hurried  forward  to  be  beforehand  at  Wells,  where 
he  had  not  yet  been  installed  as  bishop.  Until  the  installa- 
tion had  taken  place  he  had  no  right  to  enter  the  Cathedral 
choir  or  to  sit  in  the  episcopal  seat.  On  his  arrival  he  was 
enthroned  as  bishop  a  few  hours  before  he  in  that  capacity 
took  part  in  the  reception  of  the  king.  He  evidently  found 
the  palace  unfit  for  the  entertainment  of  royalty,  and  accord- 
ingly Henry,  when  he  arrived  on  September  29,  was  lodged 
at  the  deanery  as  the  guest  of  Dean  Gunthorp.  In  the 
meanwhile  Warbeck  fled  from  his  army  and  took  sanc- 
tuary in  the  Abbey  of  Beaulieu  in  the  New  Forest.  He 
was  brought  back  to  Taunton  whither  the  king  had  moved. 
Bishop  King  did  not  remain  at  Wells  after  the  public  recep- 
tion of  Henry  VII.,  but  relegated  his  episcopal  functions  to 
a  suffragan,  Thomas  Cornish,  Chancellor  of  Wells.  His 
interests  were  rather  at  Bath  than  Wells.  About  1500  he 
rebuilt    Bath  Abbey,  prompted,  it  is  said,   by   a   vision    of 

E.E.P.  X 


3o6      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL   PALACES 

Jacob's  ladder.  The  vision  may  still  be  seen  carved  on  the 
west  front  of  Bath  Abbey.  No  bishop  bestowed  further  care 
on  the  palace  until  Bishop  John  Clerk  (1523 — 41)  added  the 
two  oriel  windows  on  the  north  front  overlooking  the  moat. 

Leland  visited  the  palace  between  the  years  1540 — 2  and 
wrote  the  following  description  of  it : — 

"The  area  afore  the  Bishop's  Palace  lyith  Est  of  the 
Market  stede,  and  hath  a  fair  high  Waul  toward  the  Market 
stede,  and  a  right  goodly  Gate  House  yn  it,  made  of  late  by 
Bishop  Bekingtun  as  it  apperith  by  his  armes.  On  the  south 
side  of  this  Area  is  the  Bishop's  Palace,  dichid  brodely  and 
watered  about  by  the  Water  of  S.  Andres  Streame  let  into  it. 
This  Palace  ys  strongely  waullid  and  embateld  Castelle  lyke, 
and  hath  in  the  first  Front  a  godly  Gate  House  yn  the 
midle,  and  at  eche  ende  of  the  Front  a  round  Towr,  and  2 
other  rounde  Towers  be  lykelyhood  yn  the  South  side  of  the 
Palace,  and  then  is  ther  one  at  every  corner.  The  Haul  of 
the  Palace  ys  exceeding  fay  re." 

Only  fifteen  years  later  this  fair  hall  was  reduced  to  ruins. 
It  was  during  Bishop  Clerk's  episcopate,  though  he  himself 
took  no  known  part  in  the  matter,  that  a  tragic  scene  took 
place  in  the  great  hall,  which  was  probably  the  last  public 
event  within  its  walls. 

Tradition  has  it  that  the  trial  of  Richard  Whiting,  last 
Abbot  of  Glastonbury,  was  held  in  the  great  hall  of  the  Wells 
Palace.  The  letters  of  Henry  VIII.'s  agents  concerning  the 
trial  and  execution  prove  that  the  abbot  was  in  Wells  on 
November  14,  1539,  the  eve  of  his  execution,  and  that  his 
judges  were  residing  in  Wells,  but  the  exact  place  of  the  trial 
is  not  named.  The  ruined  hall  of  Bishop  Burnell  is,  how- 
ever, accepted  as  the  scene  of  the  trial  by  Dr.  F.  A.  Gasquet, 
the  abbot's  biographer.     His  "  Last  Abbot  of  Glastonbury  " 


THE    PALACE   OF   WELLS  307 

has  fully  pictured  the  cruel  tragedy  with  all  the  circum- 
stances which  led  up  to  it. 

Richard  Whiting  was  trained  as  a  boy  in  the  monastic 
school  at  Glastonbury  and  sent  to  Cambridge  to  complete 
his  education,  his  name  appearing  among  those  who  took 
their  M.A,  degree  in  1483.  For  many  years  he  held  the 
office  of  Chamberlain  at  Glastonbury,  a  position  of  respon- 
sibility in  such  a  vast  establishment  with  its  numerous 
officials.  In  1525  he  was  appointed  abbot  by  Cardinal 
Wolsey's  selection.  The  new  abbot  was  described  in  the 
cardinal's  letter  as  "  an  upright  and  religious  monk,  a  pro- 
vident and  discreet  man,  and  a  priest  commendable  for  his 
life,  virtues,  and  learning.  He  had  shown  himself  watchful 
and  circumspect  in  both  spirituals  and  temporals,  and  had 
proved  that  he  possessed  ability  and  determination  to  uphold 
the  rights  of  his  monastery."  Among  the  men  who  bore 
witness  to  the  abbot's  high  character  was  a  monk  who  had 
been  at  Glastonbury  for  nineteen  years,  and  who  declared 
that  during  all  that  time  Richard  Whiting  had  been  reputed 
a  man  of  exemplary  piety.  Thus  he  was  raised  to  a  dis- 
tinguished place  among  the  peers  of  the  realm,  and,  as  the 
head  of  the  richest  abbey  in  England,  Westminster  alone 
excepted,  he  became  an  obstacle  to  Henry  VHI.  and  the 
object  of  his  attacks. 

"  The  King  and  his  council,"  said  the  then  Abbot  of 
Colchester,  "  were  drawn  into  such  inordinate  covetousncss 
that  if  all  the  water  in  the  Thames  were  flowing  gold  and 
silver,  it  were  not  able  to  slake  their  covetousness."  The 
revenues  of  Glastonbury'  Abbey  afforded  a  tempting  prey. 
No  charge  of  laxity  in  morals  or  discipline  could,  however, 
be  brought  against  the  abbey  under  Whiting's  rule.  During 
his  abbacy  some  three  or  four  hundred  youths  of  gentle  birth 

X   2 


3o8      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

were  trained  there,  the  poor  flocked  to  his  gate  and  found 
regular  relief  every  Wednesday  and  Friday  in  the  week,  and 
he  showed  hospitality  to  the  poorest  as  to  the  most 
distinguished  visitors. 

On  August  21,  1535,  the  attack  upon  Glastonbury  began. 
Dr.  Richard  Layton,  one  of  the  most  unscrupulous  of  the 
royal  inquisitors,  was  sent  to  pry  upon  the  abbey,  but  for  all 
his  scrutiny  he  could  not  report  one  notable  offence.  This 
did  not  exempt  the  abbot  from  royal  depredations.  Manors, 
livings,  and  annuities  for  the  king's  servants  were  demanded 
from  him  and  granted  perforce.  In  the  meanwhile  the  sup- 
pression of  the  monasteries  continued.  By  1539  Glastonbury 
was  the  only  religious  house  left  standing  in  Somersetshire. 
In  the  autumn  of  that  year,  when  the  venerable  abbot  must 
have  been  about  76  years  old,  final  steps  were  taken  against 
him.  Three  royal  commissioners,  Layton,  Pollard,  and 
Moyle,  unexpectedly  arrived  at  Glastonbury  about  ten 
o'clock  in  the  morning.  The  abbot  was  away  at  his  grange 
of  Sharpham,  about  a  mile  from  the  monastery.  They  found 
him  there,  took  him  back  to  the  abbey  and  proceeded  to 
search  his  papers  and  ransack  his  apartments.  The  only 
incriminating  evidence  they  could  find  was  a  book  written 
against  the  divorce  of  Henry  VIII.  and  Katherine  of  Aragon. 
They  submitted  the  old  man  to  a  severe  interrogatory  to 
make  him  "  show  a  traitorous  mind  againt  the  King's 
Majesty."  Then  they  brought  him,  "  being  but  a  very  weak 
man  and  sickly,  with  as  fair  words  as  they  could  "  to  London, 
and  imprisoned  him  in  the  Tower,  so  that  Cromwell  might 
examine  him  for  himself.  It  was  discovered  that  the  abbot 
had  hidden  a  fair  chalice  of  gold  and  other  parcels  of  plate, 
and  that  he  had  sent  away  money  and  plate  for  safety  to  the 
country.     His  fate  was  sealed  before  he  left  the  Tower,  after 


THE    PALACE    OF   WELLS  309 


two  months'  imprisonment.  Henry  VIIL  and  Cromwell 
determined  that  he  should  die  a  traitor's  death  at  Glaston- 
bury in  the  sight  of  his  own  people,  on  a  charge  of  robbing 
his  own  abbey. 

Lord  John  Russell,  the  king's  agent,  was  ordered  to  pre- 
pare for  a  mock  trial  at  Wells.  He  collected  witnesses  and  a 
jury  whom  he  could  trust  to  carry  out  the  royal  will,  assuring 
Cromwell  that  he  had  gathered  "  as  worshipful  a  jury  as  was 
charged  here  these  many  years."  Pollard  escorted  Whiting 
from  the  Tower  to  Wells,  protesting  that  he  "  was  appointed 
to  bear  him  company  for  worship's  sake,  and  therefore  might 
not  forsake  him  till  he  did  see  him  safe  at  Glastonbury." 
At  Wells  a  great  throng  awaited  his  arrival,  and  the  trial  was 
begun  without  giving  the  condemned  man  time  for  rest. 
New  accusers  stepped  out  from  the  crowd,  his  tenants  and 
others,  alleging  wrongs  he  had  done  them.  He  was  associated 
and  sentenced  with  a  number  of  common  felons  accused  of 
rape  and  burglary.  Pollard  pestered  him  to  confess  the 
hiding-places  of  more  treasures  belonging  to  Glastonbury, 
"  but  he  would  accuse  none  but  himself,  and  confessed  no 
more  gold  and  silver  than  he  did  before  Cromwell  in  the 
Tower."  The  next  morning,  Saturday,  November  15,  1539, 
the  abbot  and  two  of  his  monks,  John  Thorne  and  Roger 
James,  were  taken  to  Glastonbury.  At  the  entrance  to  the 
town  the  abbot  was  made  to  dismount,  his  limbs  were 
stretched  upon  a  hurdle,  and  he  was  dragged  by  a  horse 
through  the  streets  of  Glastonbury  and  up  to  the  gallows  on 
Tor  Hill.  Lord  John  Russell  wrote  callously  the  next  day 
to  Cromwell  :  "  The  abbot  was  beheaded  and  quartered — 
one  quarter  stands  at  Wells,  another  at  Bath,  the  rest  at 
Ilchester  and  Bridgwater,  and  his  head  upon  the  abbey  gate 
at    Glastonbury."       Pollard    wrote  :    "  He    took    his    death 


3IO      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL   PALACES 

patiently,  asking  pardon  of  God  and  the  king  for  his 
offences,  and  desiring  my  servants  to  ask  me  and  my  lord 
president  to  mediate  with  the  king  for  his  forgiveness "  ; 
and  closing  his  letter  with  the  pith  of  the  business :  "  It  will 
be  near  Christmas  before  I  have  surveyed  the  lands  of 
Glastonbury  and  taken  the  audit." 

The  Bishops  of  Bath  and  Wells  were  more  complacent 
than  the  venerable  abbot.  In  the  very  year  1539,  when  the 
king's  desires  were  consummated  with  regard  to  Glastonbury, 
the  process  of  spoliation  began  also  at  Wells.  In  March, 
1539,  a  demand  came  from  Cromwell,  then  non-resident  Dean 
of  Wells,  that  the  chapter  should  send  him  an  inventory  of 
their  jewels  and  plate.  A  humble  petition  accompanied  the 
canons'  answer,  begging  Cromwell  "  to  be  a  mediator  to  the 
king  if  he  thinks  any  of  it  may  remain  to  the  honour  of  God 
and  the  necessary  use  of  the  Church." 

Five  years  later  it  was  the  bishop's  turn  to  disburse. 
"  Upon  information  of  the  Bishop  of  Bath's  great  substance  " 
Henry  VIII.  desired  a  loan  of  ;£'3,ooo.  Bishop  Knight 
denied  that  he  had  any  such  store,  but  confessed  to  having 
"  £1,000  in  angels,  £200  or  ;^330  more  in  ready  money,  and 
plate  to  as  much  value  as  all  the  money."  He  sent  1,000 
marks'  worth  of  plate  and  coin,  begging  the  king  to  accept 
it  as  his  "free  and  poor  gift,"  and  was  "inwardly  sorry  not 
to  be  able  to  satisfy  his  Majesty's  expectation  fully."  Not 
only  money,  but  goods  and  chattels,  lead  and  bells  passed 
into  the  royal  exchequer  from  Bishop  Knight  at  Wells  and 
from  the  Bishop  of  St.  Asaph's  and  St.  David's.  The  latter 
was  William  Barlow,  who  was  to  be  Knight's  successor  in 
the  see  of  Bath  and  Wells.  To  his  name  the  odium  is 
attached  of  having  sold  the  estates  of  the  see  and  the  palace 
of  the  bishops.     He  had  caused  the  lead  to  be  stripped  from 


THE    PALACE    OF   WELLS  311 

the  episcopal  palace  at  St.  David's,  and  had  preached 
zealously  against  pilgrimages,  relic  and  saint  worship,  thus 
commending  himself  to  the  all-powerful  Protector,  Somerset. 
In  1549  he  was  made  Bishop  of  Bath  and  Wells  to  act  as 
the  Protector's  tool.  Within  a  year  of  his  installation  Barlow 
sold  to  Somerset  the  episcopal  palace,  the  manors  of  Wells 
and  Westbury,  and  the  park  at  Westbury,  in  return  for  a  sum 
of  ;£'400  and  the  mansion  called  the  Dean's  House.  While 
the  Protector  was  in  possession  of  the  palace.  Barlow  lodged 
at  the  deanery,  and  caused  Dean  Goodman,  on  the  pretext  of 
disobedience,  to  be  sent  to  Fleet  Prison.  The  Duke  of  Somerset 
did  not  enjoy  his  possessions  long.  The  date  of  the  purchase 
was  December  10,  1550,  and  within  eighteen  months  he  was 
attainted  and  beheaded,  on  January  22,  1552.  Wells  Palace 
and  estates  lapsed  to  the  Crown,  but  were  subsequently 
granted  back  to  Bishop  Barlow  in  exchange  for  other  pro- 
perty. Barlow  then  petitioned  to  be  allowed  to  take 
down  and  sell  the  great  hall  of  the  palace.  In  1552  King 
Edward  VI.  signified  his  permission  that  "  the  bishop, 
having  many  fit  places  within  the  precinct  of  the  house  of 
Wells  to  make  an  hall  of  and  for  his  hospitality,  may  (edifying 
one  thereon)  take  down  the  great  hall  now  standing  and 
grant  the  same  away,  commending  unto  him  for  that  pur- 
pose Sir  Henry  Gates,  upon  knowledge  had  of  the  bishop's 
good  inclination  towards  him." 

The  agent  employed  by  Barlow  to  demolish  the  banquet- 
ing hall  was,  however,  not  Sir  Henry  Gates,  but  his  brother, 
Sir  John.  Godwin,  canon  of  Wells,  writing  in  1595,  states 
authoritatively  that  Sir  John  Gates  had  destroyed  the  hall 
about  forty  years  previously.  Gates  had  been  a  trusted 
servant  of  Henry  VIII.,  and  enforced  Bishop  Ridley's  order 
to  remove  "  superalteries,  altars,  and  such  like  ceremonies  and 


312      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL   PALACES 

abuses."  He  obtained  possession  of  Wells  Palace  through 
the  influence  of  his  patron,  the  Duke  of  Northumberland, 
and  proceeded  to  make  what  profit  he  could  out  of  the 
materials  of  Burnell's  Hall.  Then  the  great  banqueting-hall 
was  stripped  of  its  timber  and  of  its  leaden  roof,  and  the 
bare  walls  were  left  standing  open  to  the  sky.  The  ruins 
still  remain,  bearing  witness  to  the  ruthless  greed  of  its 
destroyers.  By  Barlow's  orders  the  chantry  chapel  had  been 
pulled  down  after  the  suppression  of  the  chantries  and  left  in 
a  ruined  heap.  Sir  John  Gates  entered  into  a  contract  with 
the  bishop  and  dean  and  chapter  to  remove  the  materials 
from  the  ground  within  four  years  and  three  months.  But 
he  was  implicated  in  Northumberland's  plot  to  enthrone 
Lady  Jane  Grey,  and  was  executed,  in  1553,  before  the  time 
of  the  contract  was  complete. 

Bishop  Barlow,  a  more  prudent  time-server,  survived.  On 
Mary's  accession  he  attempted  to  escape  from  England,  leaving 
Bristol  by  sea  in  the  boat  of  one  "  William,  Maryner  of 
Bristowe."  The  sailor  was  arrested  and  committed  to 
Marshalsea,  and  the  fugitive  Barlow  caught  and  imprisoned 
in  the  Tower.  There  he  made  a  recantation,  and  when  set 
at  liberty  fled  to  Germany.  At  Frankfort  he  was  in  the 
company  of  some  foreign  Protestant  weavers  whom  he  had 
helped  during  the  Duke  of  Somerset's  supremacy,  installing 
them  in  Orwell  Park  at  Glastonbury.  The  accession  of 
Elizabeth  brought  Barlow  back  to  England,  where  he  ended 
his  days  as  Bishop  of  Chichester.  Froude  describes  him  as 
a  feeble  enthusiast.  He  had  twice  recanted  in  face  of  danger, 
and  was  zealous  only  in  the  cause  of  a  powerful  patron. 

The  palace,  bereft  of  its  former  splendour,  was  left 
uncared  for  until  the  end  of  Elizabeth's  reign.  The  beautiful 
oak   staircase   dates  from    about  this  period,  one  authority 


THE    PALACE    OF   WELLS  313 

attributing  it  to  Bishop  Gilbert  Berkeley  (1560 — 1581),  and 
another  to  James  Montagu  (1608 — 1616).  Both  primates 
occupied  themselves  with  the  buildings  of  their  diocese. 

On  Berkeley's  death,  the  see  remained  vacant  for  three 
years,  so  that  Wells  Palace  must  have  been  considerably  in 
need  of  repairs  when  Bishop  Godwin  was  installed  in  1584. 
Again,  on  the  death  of  Godwin,  two  years  elapsed  before  the 
appointment  of  Bishop  John  Still.  His  successor.  Bishop 
Montagu,  spent  a  revenue  which  came  in  from  the  Mendip 
lead  mines  in  restoring  the  palace  chapel,  and  with  such 
taste  as  to  call  for  the  admiring  words  of  the  Wells  historian, 
Godwin,  who  wrote  of  it  in  1616 :  "  That  goodly  chapel,  the 
most  beautiful  I  have  yet  seen  in  England."  Bishop 
Montagu  provided  it,  too,  with  organs  and  other  fittings 
and  ornaments,  all  of  which  were  soon  to  be  destroyed 
by  the  Puritans.  The  story  is  told  of  Bishop  Montagu  that 
he  was  one  day  in  Bath  walking  in  the  rain,  when  his  com- 
panion. Sir  John  Harington,  led  him  into  the  abbey,  then 
roofless,  under  pretence  of  seeking  shelter,  thus  to  impress 
him  with  its  dire  need  of  repair.  And  the  bishop  added  to 
his  other  works  that  of  restoring  the  nave  of  Bath  Abbey. 
It  was  during  his  episcopate  that  Wells  was  favoured  with 
another  royal  visit. 

Queen  Anne  of  Denmark,  the  gay  lover  of  masques  and 
entertainments,  made  a  progress  in  1613  to  Bath,  Bristol, 
and  Wells,  a  journey  which  cost  the  royal  exchequer  £"30,000. 
She  spent  some  weeks  taking  the  waters  at  Bath  for  the 
sake  of  her  health,  and  passed  on  to  Bristol,  where  she 
received  so  hearty  a  welcome  that  on  her  departure  she 
remarked  that  she  never  knew  she  was  a  queen  till  she 
came  to  Bristol.  Bishop  Montagu  took  part  in  her  reception 
there,  leading  her  from  her  coach  and  conducting  her  to  the 


314      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

chancel  of  the  Cathedral.  He  no  doubt  invited  the  queen  to 
extend  her  progress  to  his  own  cathedral  city.  He  wrote  to 
the  Mayor  and  Corporation  of  Wells  telling  of  the  queen's 
intention  to  visit  Wells,  and  desiring  that  "  a  Silver  Bole 
bee  given  to  her  Majestic  of  the  price  of  £20,  that  the 
streates  bee  made  handsome,  and  the  towne  rid  of  beggars 
and  rogues." 

On  August  20,  1613,  "  the  Mayor  of  Wells  and  his  breth- 
ren "  awaited  the  queen  "  in  their  scarlet  near  about  Browne's 
Gate ;  the  rest  in  black  gowns,  and  the  other  burgesses  in  their 
best  apparel."  The  well-known  portrait  of  this  queen  in  a 
high-hooped  dress,  the  skirt  standing  out  at  half  a  foot's 
length  from  her  waist  in  a  complete  circle,  helps  to  fill  in 
the  picture  of  this  day's  doings  at  Wells.  The  queen  and 
the  notables  of  her  train  were  invited  to  dine  with  Mr.  William 
Bull,  the  Mayor  of  Wells,  the  list  of  guests  including  the 
Earls  of  Worcester  and  Tinmouth,  Bishop  Montagu,  Sir 
Thomas  Somerset,  the  Countess  of  Derby,  the  Lady  Cary, 
the  Lady  Gray,  the  Lady  Windsor,  the  Lady  Hutton,  the 
Lady  Walsingham,  and  four  maids  of  honour.  It  is  likely 
that  some  of  this  company,  and  perhaps  the  queen  herself, 
lodged  in  the  bishop's  palace,  but  neither  the  place  of  the 
dinner  nor  the  queen's  lodging  is  recorded. 

A  pageant  was  presented  before  Her  Majesty  by  the  masters 
and  wardens  of  every  trade  and  occupation  within  the  cit}'. 
"  The  Hammer-men,  the  Shermen  "  or  clothworkers,  "  the 
Tanners,  Chaundlers  and  Butchers,  the  Cordyners"  or  leather- 
workers,  "and  Mercers"  had  prepared  five  shows  to  pass  in 
procession  before  her.  The  tanners,  chandlers,  and  butchers 
presented  "  a  carte  of  olde  Virgines ;  the  carte  covered  with 
hide  and  homes,  and  the  Virgines  with  their  attires  made 
of  cow-tayles,  and  bracelettes  for  their  neckes,  of  homes  sawed 


AKIIHK    J.AKK,    lilSllDl'    (IK    liAIll    ANH    Wl-.ll 
Front  an  cngraz'ing  in  the  British  Museum. 


THE    PALACE    OF   WELLS  315 

and  hanged  about  their  neckes  for  rich  jewelles.  Their 
charriot  was  drawne  by  men  and  boyes  in  oxe-skines,  and 
calve-skines,  and  other  skines.  St.  Clement,  their  saint,  rode 
allsoe  with  his  booke,  and  his  Frier  rode  allsoe,  who  dealt 
almes  out  of  his  master's  bagge  (which  he  carried  verie  full 
of  greynes)  verie  plentifullie."  Acteon  with  his  huntsmen 
brought  up  the  rear. 

The  tailors  presented  Herod  and  Herodias,  and  the  daughter 
of  Herodias,  "  who  daunced  for  St.  John  the  Baptiste's  hedd, 
and  St.  John  the  Baptiste  beheaded." 

The  mercers  gave  "  a  morrice  daunce  of  young  children, 
the  giant  and  the  giantesse,  Kinge  Ftolemeus  with  his  Queen 
and  daughter,  which  was  to  be  devoured  of  the  Dragon  ; 
St.  George  with  his  Knightes,  who  slew  the  Dragon  and 
rescued  the  Virgin ;  Diana  and  her  Nymphes,  carried  in  a 
chariot,  who  turned  Acteon  to  a  harte." 

The  twice  repeated  hunting-scene  perhaps  pointed  an 
allusion  to  the  queen's  love  of  hounds,  the  dogs  with  which 
she  was  so  often  painted.  She  was  an  ardent  patron  of 
such  entertainments,  and  had  personally  appeared  in  several 
masques  by  Ben  Jonson,  so  that  the  performers  at  Wells 
must  have  felt  themselves  under  the  eye  of  an  expert. 

During  the  latter  half  of  the  reign  of  James  I.  one  of  the 
most  saintly  bishops  of  this  see,  Bishop  Arthur  Lake  (1616 — 
26),  occupied  the  Wells  Palace.  He  raised  the  spiritual  status 
of  life  there.  In  the  inner  and  domestic  hall  of  the  palace 
he  used  to  dine  daily  with  his  household  of  some  fifty  of  his 
poorer  clerks  and  neighbours,  and  on  every  Sunday,  like  his 
famous  successor,  Bishop  Ken,  he  fed  twelve  poor  men  from  the 
city  at  his  own  table.  Accessible  to  all,  "  he  was  to  scholars 
a  Hving  library,  and  to  his  city  an  oracle."  Before  conferring 
holy  orders  he  examined  the  candidates  personally,  and  after 


3i6      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL   PALACES 


ordination  watched  over  the  clergy  and  their  families  with 
paternal  care.  He  was  firm  in  maintaining  ecclesiastical 
discipline,  never  allowing  penance  to  be  replaced  by  a 
pecuniary  fine.  At  the  coronation  of  Charles  I.  he  occupied 
the  traditionary  place  of  the  Bishops  of  Bath  and  Wells, 
and  walked  to  Westminster  Abbey  by  the  side  of  the  king 
beneath  the  canopy  of  state,  Bishop  Neile  of  Durham,  sup- 
porting King  Charles  on  the  other  side.  He  died  the  fol- 
lowing year  at  the  age  of  fifty-nine,  and  was  buried  in  the 
south  choir  aisle  of  his  own  cathedral.  There  are  portraits 
of  Bishop  Lake  in  the  Wells  Palace  and  at  New  College, 
Oxford,  where  he  had  endowed  lectureships  in  Hebrew  and 
mathematics. 

Bishop  Laud  (1626 — 8)  was  for  two  years  bishop  of  this 
diocese,  but  he  never  lived  at  Wells.  As  archbishop  he 
made  an  award  concerning  dilapidations  of  the  palace. 
Bishop  Piers,  finding  the  palace  in  disrepair,  sued  his  pre- 
decessor. Bishop  Walter  Curll,  who  had  been  translated  to 
Winchester,  concerning  dilapidations.  The  archbishop 
awarded  that  £160  should  be  paid  by  Bishop  Curll  to  Piers 
for  repairs,  and  that  Piers  and  his  successors  should  be 
discharged  from  the  liability  to  repair  such  parts  of  Banwell 
House  and  of  the  old  stable  of  Wells  as  should  be  adjudged 
unuseful  to  the  see  of  Bath  and  Wells. 

Bishop  William  Piers  (1632—70),  the  friend  and  sup- 
porter of  Archbishop  Laud,  had  to  meet  the  tide  of  the 
Great  Rebellion,  and  was  overwhelmed  by  it.  Piers  was  in 
ill-favour  with  the  Puritans.  He  had  encouraged  the 
observance  of  Church-ales,  clerk-ales,  and  bid-ales,  Sunday 
merry-makings  hated  by  the  Sabbatarians.  He  wrote  to 
Laud  in  1633 :  "  The  chiefest  cause  of  dislike  of  these  feasts 
among  the  preciser  sort  is  because  they  are  kept  on  Sundays, 


THE    PALACE    OF   WELLS  317 

which  they  never  call  but  Sabbath-days,  upon  which  they 
would  have  no  manner  of  recreation,  neither  roast  nor  sod  " 
[seethed  meat].  "  Some  of  the  ministers  confess  that  if  the 
people  should  not  have  their  lawful  recreations  upon  Sun- 
days after  evening  prayer  they  would  go  either  to  tippling 
houses,  and  there  talk  of  matters  of  Church  and  State,  or 
else  into  conventicles."  Piers  shared  in  Laud's  fall.  He 
was  ejected  from  his  diocese,  impeached  by  the  Long  Parlia- 
ment, and  imprisoned  in  the  Tower,  but  recovered  his  liberty 
and  lived  on  his  private  estate  at  Cuddesdon,  Oxfordshire, 
until  the  Restoration,  when  he  entered  once  more  into  his 
palace  in  his  old  age. 

The  palace  suffered  much  during  the  Civil  War.  It  was 
during  August,  1642  that  skirmishing  took  place  on  the  hills 
round  Wells  and  on  the  high  road  between  Wells  and 
Glastonbury.  Royalist  forces,  under  the  Marquis  of  Hert- 
ford and  Sir  Ralph  Hopton,  had  removed  from  Bath  to 
Wells  and  there  made  the  bishop's  palace  their  headquarters. 
On  the  morning  of  Friday,  August  5,  they  perceived  a  large 
body  of  men  encamped  against  them  on  the  top  of  Mendip 
Hill,  above  the  town.  This  force  had  come  from  Bristol 
under  Sir  Francis  Popham  and  Sir  Edward  Hungerford,  and 
had  spent  the  night  in  prayer  and  psalm-singing.  They  had 
two  pieces  of  ordnance,  which  they  mounted  against  the 
palace,  and  a  few  shots  were  made.  "  The  report  of  the  guns 
made  the  Cavaliers  bestir  themselves.  All  the  foot-soldiers 
were  drawn  up  in  the  avenues  of  Wells,  which  were  immedi- 
ately barricaded  as  well  as  the  time  would  afford.  The 
horse  and  dragoons  and  gentlemen  volunteers  were  drawn 
out  of  the  town  towards  the  enemy  and  had  a  skirmish  at 
the  foot  of  the  great  hill."  Two  other  bands  coming  up  to 
surround  the  town,  the  marquis  determined  to  evacuate  it, 


3i8      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL   PALACES 

and  made  a  feint  of  withdrawing  to  Glastonbury,  thus 
drawing  off  the  enemy  to  secure  the  high  road  between 
Wells  and  Glastonbury.  Suddenly  changing  front,  the 
marquis's  force  marched  for  Sherborne,  the  cannon  being  too 
high  on  the  hill  to  hurt  them.  On  his  departure  the  mayor 
and  citizens  of  Wells  sent  messengers  to  Chewton  to  petition 
that  the  Parliamentarian  soldiers  might  not  be  allowed  to 
come  down  or  attempt  anything  against  them ;  but  the 
victors'  ardour  could  not  be  restrained.  The  Mendip  men 
entered  the  city  with  unbounded  joy,  glorying  in  having 
vanquished  the  Papists.  They  broke  the  painted  glass  in 
the  cathedral  and  overran  the  palace,  seizing  and  throwing 
out  the  wine  and  the  organs,  and  tearing  down  the  pictures 
from  the  walls.  A  picture  representing  the  Virgin  was 
hoisted  on  a  spear  and  carried  about  in  contempt  and 
derision. 

Wells  Palace  thus  passed  into  the  hands  of  new  masters. 
There  came  down  from  London  one  Dr.  Cornelius  Burges,  a 
sturdy  leader  of  the  Assembly  of  Divines,  who  had  served 
on  a  Parliamentary  committee  for  treating  ecclesiastical 
questions  and  had  advocated  the  confiscation  of  episcopal 
lands.  An  ordinance  of  1646  ordered  that  these  lands  should 
be  sold  for  the  use  of  the  Commonwealth,  and  Cornelius 
Burges  bought  the  palace,  the  deanery,  and  other  ecclesias- 
tical property  in  Wells.  He  left  his  post  as  preacher  of 
St.  Paul's  and  removed  to  Wells.  He  set  to  work  to  despoil 
the  palace,  removed  the  timbered  ceiling,  and  stripped  the 
lead  off  the  roof,  so  that  the  walls  stood  bare  to  the  sky, 
matching  the  ruin  of  Burnell's  Hall.  He  sold  what  materials 
he  could  and  used  the  remainder  in  improving  the  deanery 
where  he  established  himself,  and  proceeded  to  let  the  gate- 
houses as  lodgings,  it  is  said,  "  to  some  inferior  people." 


THE    PALACE    OF   WELLS  319 

For  some  years  Dr.  Burges  received  a  stipend  as  "  preacher 
in  the  late  Cathedral  church  of  Wells";  but  many  people 
walked  about  in  the  Cathedral  while  he  was  preaching  and 
would  not  listen.  He  then  kept  it  closed,  and  the  inhabitants 
of  Wells  petitioned  Parliament  that  Dr.  Burges  should 
deliver  up  the  keys  of  the  Cathedral,  which  he  kept  locked 
while  they  wished  to  repair  it.  At  the  Restoration  his 
property  was  taken  from  him  without  compensation.  He 
refused  to  leave  the  deanery,  but  was  ejected  to  make  room 
for  Dean  Creighton. 

Bishop  Piers  was  reinstated  in  his  see.  Fines  and 
renewals  of  leases  came  in  abundantly,  providing  the  means 
for  repairing  the  damage  done  to  the  Cathedral  and  palace, 
and  the  two  succeeding  bishops,  Robert  Creighton  (1670 — 2) 
and  Peter  Mews  (1672 — 84)  also  spent  sums  on  the  work 
of  restoration. 

The  palace  remained  unscathed  during  the  Monmouth 
rebellion,  though  the  rebel  force  passed  and  repassed  through 
Wells.  On  July  i,  1685,  the  mob  of  Monmouth's  rustic 
followers  invaded  and  damaged  the  Cathedral,  using  it  as  a 
stable  for  their  horses,  and  mutilating  the  sculptured  figures, 
but  apparently  left  the  palace  untouched.  Two  reasons  for 
this  immunity  have  been  suggested  :  either  the  palace 
gateways,  walls,  and  moat  had  served  as  a  defence  against  an 
irregular  attack,  or  possibly  the  new  bishop.  Ken,  had  already 
become  loved  of  his  people,  and  in  his  absence  they  may 
have  protected  his  property.  During  the  Rebellion  Bishop 
Ken  was  in  London,  whither  he  had  been  summoned  in 
April,  1685,  to  take  part  in  the  coronation  of  James  H.,  and 
he  had  remained  there  to  attend  Parliament.  His  prede- 
cessor, an  old  fighting  cavalier,  Bishop  Mews,  who  had  been 
translated  to  Winchester,  hastened  to  Wells,  and  showed  the 


320      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL   PALACES 

gunners  how  to  plant  their  guns  at  the  battle  of  Sedgemoor, 
and  on  the  following  Sunday,  July  8,  when  the  king's  forces 
were  resting  at  Wells,  he  preached  in  the  Cathedral  at  the 
service  of  thanksgiving  for  the  victory. 

Thomas  Ken  was  consecrated  Bishop  of  Bath  and  Wells 
in  the  January  preceding  the  Monmouth  Rebellion  of  June, 
1685.  The  most  famous  of  the  bishops  of  this  see  and  one 
of  the  renowned  "seven"  arrested  by  James  II.  in  1688,  he 
took  a  foremost  part  in  the  stirring  events  of  English  history 
during  the  five  years  of  his  episcopate. 

A  scholar  and  tutor  of  New  College,  Oxford,  his  first  step 
on  the  road  to  distinction  was  his  appointment  as  chaplain 
to  Mary,  the  king's  sister,  wife  of  William  II.,  Prince  of 
Orange.  While  at  the  Hague  Court  he  dared  to  remonstrate 
with  the  prince  for  his  unkind  behaviour  to  his  wife,  and  on 
another  occasion  incurred  William's  anger  by  persuading 
Count  Zulestein  to  marry  a  lady  whom  he  had  seduced. 
William  was  struck  by  his  courage  and  refused  to  accept 
his  resignation.  Another  often  quoted  instance  of  his  moral 
force  is  the  tale  of  Charles  II. 's  visit  to  Winchester  in  1683 
when  Bishop  Ken  refused  to  allow  the  king's  favourite,  Nell 
Gwyn,  the  use  of  his  house.  Charles  thought  all  the  more 
highly  of  him,  and  in  the  following  year,  1684,  chose  him  to 
fill  the  vacant  bishopric  of  Bath  and  Wells,  declaring  that 
no  one  should  have  the  see  but  "  the  little  black  fellow  that 
refused  his  lodging  to  poor  Nelly."  A  few  months  later 
Charles  summoned  Bishop  Ken  to  his  death-bed,  and  the 
bishop  persuaded  him  to  send  the  Duchess  of  Portsmouth 
from  the  room  and  to  send  for  the  queen;  pleaded  with 
him  without  avail  to  receive  the  Communion,  and  finally 
pronounced  his  absolution. 

Bishop  Ken's  influence  extended  to  James  II.  in  a  marked 


Thomas  Kk\,   liisiKH'  m-    ]',\\\[  wn  Wki.i.s. 

From  his  fioi-trait  in  ll'an/i/t's  Li></i;iiigs,  AVjc  CoUi-i;c,  Ox/oni. 


THE    PALACE    OF   WELLS  321 

degree.  After  the  Monmouth  Rebellion  he  was  sent,  with  the 
Bishop  of  Ely,  to  inform  the  duke  of  his  death  sentence  ;  he 
spent  the  night  before  the  execution  with  the  duke  in  the 
Tower  and  accompanied  him  to  the  scaffold.  He  then  went 
down  to  Wells  and  used  his  influence  with  the  king  to  save 
many  of  Monmouth's  supporters  from  their  fate  at  the  hands 
of  Colonel  Kirke  and  Judge  Jeffreys.  From  his  palace  he 
went  forth  to  the  gaols  and  cells  of  the  condemned  peasants, 
of  whom  in  Wells  alone  ninety-seven  are  said  to  have  been 
hanged  and  385  transported.  He  is  said  to  have  saved  one 
hundred  prisoners  from  death. 

Bishop  Ken's  saintliness  shed  a  lustre  over  the  palace, 
and  many  traditions  of  the  good  bishop  linger  there.  His 
favourite  walk  in  the  beautiful  palace  gardens  is  said  to  have 
been  the  terrace  path,  following  the  line  of  the  wall  between 
two  corner  bastions.  Local  tradition  says  that  he  composed 
there  his  well-known  morning,  evening  and  midnight  hymns, 
which  better  authorities  declare  to  have  been  written  at  Win- 
chester. But  doubtless  many  of  his  friends  and  pupils  first 
learnt  the  hymns  from  his  lips  as  they  walked  up  and  down 
in  the  gardens,  and  he  must  have  often  played  them  upon 
his  organ  in  the  palace.  Ever  since  his  youth  he  had  been 
a  lover  of  music,  and  when  a  young  chaplain  at  Winchester, 
had  possessed  an  organ  of  his  own. 

Within  his  palace  he  wrote  many  of  his  books:  ''The 
Practice  of  Divine  Love,"  the  "  Directions  for  Prayer,"  and 
"  Prayers  for  the  use  of  all  Resorting  to  the  Baths  at  Bath," 
his  "  Pastoral  Letter  on  the  Observance  of  Lent,"  and  a  Letter 
to  the  clergy  on  behalf  of  the  French  Protestant  refugees. 
Frugal  in  his  personal  habits,  he  was  large-hearted  and 
libera],  from  the  days  of  his  academic  life  when  he  gave 
£100  as  his  parting  gift   to  New  College,   to  those  of  his 

E.E.P.  Y 


322      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

episcopate  when  the  larger  part  of  ;^4,ooo  was  his  contribu- 
tion to  a  fund  for  the  Huguenot  refugees.  He  avoided 
ostentation,  going  on  foot  when  others  went  in  coaches. 
When  he  was  at  Wells  on  a  Sunday  he  would  have  twelve 
poor  men  or  w'omen  to  dine  with  him  in  his  palace,  cheering 
them  the  while  with  discourse,  generally  mixed  with  some 
useful  instruction,  and  when  they  had  dined,  the  remainder 
was  divided  among  them  to  be  carried  home  to  their  families. 
The  guests  bore  away  too  the  memory  of  kindly  and  com- 
forting words — the  more  to  be  remembered  and  valued  as 
their  host  was  a  great  man  and  a  friend  of  the  king.  He 
combined  a  wide  experience  of  the  world  with  the  homely 
virtues  of  a  parish  priest.  When  a  beggar  came  to  him  he 
would  examine  whether  he  could  say  the  Lord's  Prayer  or 
the  Creed,  and,  finding  much  ignorance  among  the  poor  he 
started  schools  for  the  children  of  his  diocese.  But  his  work 
there  and  his  devout  life  at  Wells  were  interrupted  by  the 
passing  of  the  House  of  Stuart. 

One  of  the  famous  Seven  Bishops  who  petitioned  James  II. 
to  be  excused  from  reading  the  Declaration  of  Indulgence  he 
was  arrested  and  sent  to  the  Tower.  Yet  after  the  triumphant 
acquittal,  and  in  spite  of  his  support  of  the  Revolution,  he 
retained  so  much  feeling  of  loyalty  towards  the  "  royal 
sufferer,"  as  he  called  the  fugitive  king,  that  he  refused  to  take 
the  oath  of  allegiance  to  William  of  Orange,  and  accordingly 
forfeited  his  see.  His  decision  to  remain  a  "  non-juror  "  was 
arrived  at  after  many  heart-searchings.  More  than  a  year 
was  allowed  to  elapse  between  the  time  when  he  was  legally 
deprived  and  the  actual  expulsion  in  1691.  The  day  on 
which  Bishop  Ken  read  from  his  throne  in  the  cathedral  his 
protest  against  his  deprivation,  was  probably  his  last  appear- 
ance there.     It  was  followed  soon  afterwards  by  his  departure 


THE    PALACE    OF   WELLS  323 

from  the  palace.  His  biographer,  Dean  Plumptre  writes  of 
"  partings  under  that  roof  from  his  clergy,  from  the  poor  who 
had  been  his  Sunday  guests,  from  the  boys  whom  he  had  cate- 
chized and  confirmed."  Now  he  went  forth  bereft  of  his  life's 
work ;  his  only  fund  for  the  future  being  £700,  the  proceeds  of 
the  sale  of  all  his  effects  at  the  palace,  his  library  excepted. 
His  books  were  stored  at  Longleat,  with  those  of  Lord 
Weymouth,  who  placed  his  home  at  the  bishop's  disposal. 

The  palace  was  then  empty  for  some  months.  It  was 
hard  to  find  a  willing  successor  to  Bishop  Ken.  The  first 
candidate  nominated  in  his  place.  Dr.  William  Beveridge 
declined  the  bishopric,  being  unwilling  to  take  the  title  which 
Ken  still  used  as  his  right.  Richard  Kidder  accepted  the 
appointment,  and  so  strong  was  the  local  feeling  against  him 
in  Wells,  that  when  Bishop  Kidder  and  his  wife  were  killed 
in  the  palace  by  the  fall  of  some  chimneys  during  the  terrible 
storm  of  1703,  popular  superstition  regarded  the  fatality  as  a 
judgment  of  Providence  on  the  supplanter  of  Ken. 

Queen  Anne  offered  to  restore  him  to  the  see.  He  refused 
the  offer  on  the  ground  of  his  age  and  infirmity,  and  wrote 
to  George  Hooper  to  accept  the  see.  He  died  in  1710  at 
Longleat  House  where  Lord  Weymouth  had  received  him 
twenty  years  before.  He  was  buried  as  he  had  previously 
given  instructions  "  at  sunrise,  without  any  manner  of  pomp, 
in  the  churchyard  of  the  parish  nearest  the  place  of  my 
death  "  ;  and  his  tomb  is  to  be  seen  beneath  the  east  window 
of  the  parish  church  of  Frome,  and  not  in  his  cathedral  city. 
One  of  the  ten  portraits  of  Ken  is  in  the  palace  at  Wells.  In 
the  north  aisle  of  the  cathedral  a  glass  window  was  erected 
in  honour  of  Bishop  Ken,  as  a  memorial  to  his  biographer 
Dean  Plumptre,  who  died  in  1891.  In  the  centre  Ken  is  repre- 
sented   in    full  pontifical   vestments ;    over  his  head  is  the 

Y  2 


324      ENGLISH    EPISCOPAL    PALACES 

favourite  superscription  of  his  letters,  "  All  glory  be  to  God," 
and  at  his  feet  his  rule  of  life,  "  Et  tu  quaeris  tibi  grandia  ? 
Noli  quaerere." 

The  years  of  Ken's  episcopate  are  thrown  into  high  relief 
by  the  century  of  spiritual  indifference  in  high  places  which 
followed  it.  The  bishop's  palace  at  Wells  ceased  for  several 
generations  to  be  the  important  centre  of  the  diocese.  Three 
bishops  in  succession — Bishops  Wynne,  Willes,  and  Moss — 
lived  little  at  Wells.  Bishop  Wynne's  fine  place,  Soughton 
Hall,  in  Flintshire,  was  his  favourite  place  of  residence.  No 
one  of  these  bishops  was  buried  in  Wells  Cathedral.  The 
parish  work  in  the  diocese  was  neglected,  rectors,  like  their 
superiors,  being  mostly  non-resident.  As  late  as  1789  the 
rector  of  Cheddar  resided  at  Oxford,  and  his  curate  at  Wells 
and  in  nineteen  adjoining  parishes  there  does  not  appear  to 
have  been  a  single  resident  clergyman.  Brutal  amusements 
were  practised,  bulls  were  still  baited  in  the  villages  and  even 
on  the  Cathedral  green.  With  the  great  Revivalist  movement, 
under  John  Wesley,  the  bishops  of  the  eighteenth  century 
had  naturally  no  sympathy ;  but  in  favour  of  Bishop  Moss  and 
of  his  successor,  Richard  Beadon,  it  must  be  said  that  they 
approved  the  work  of  the  orthodox  Revivalists,  Hannah 
More  and  her  sister,  who  had  established  Sunday  schools 
throughout  the  Mendip  district. 

In  the  nineteenth  century  attention  was  again  bestowed 
upon  the  palace.  Bishop  Beadon  (1802 — 24)  restored 
Bekynton's  building  so  as  to  obtain  three  storeys  in  place  of 
two.  Bishop  Law  (1824 — 45),  wishing  to  make  the  ruins 
in  his  grounds  more  picturesque,  pulled  down  two  walls  of 
Burnell's  Hall,  and^  carefully  repaired  what  he  left  standing. 
In  the  year  1846  Bishop  Richard  Bagot  carried  out  con- 
siderable works  of  alteration  and  restoration  with  Benjamin 


THE    PALACE   OF   WELLS  325 

Ferrey  for  his  architect.  The  marble  shafts  and  bases  were 
then  inserted  in  the  windows  in  the  gallery,  and  the  upper 
storey,  the  porch,  and  buttresses  were  added  to  the  west 
front ;  the  tower  at  the  north  and  the  turret  at  the  south 
were  new  additions,  and  Bekynton's  kitchen  and  offices  were 
rebuilt. 

At  the  close  of  the  nineteenth  century  Lord  Arthur  Hervey 
(i86g — 94)  converted  the  undercroft  or  ground  floor  of  the 
palace,  with  its  row  of  slender  Purbeck  columns  down  the 
centre,  into  a  splendid  dining-room,  paving  it  and  inserting 
a  fire-place,  and  it  is  now  used  on  state  occasions  as  the  dining- 
room  of  the  palace.  Of  this  bishop,  his  friend  the  Rev.  Canon 
Church  writes :  "  In  a  long  episcopate  of  a  quarter  of  a  century 
he  has  added  an  honoured  name  to  the  roll  of  worthies  who 
have  sat  in  the  seat  of  Ken  and  Ralph,  of  Bekynton  and  of 
Jocelin.  Keenly  sensible  of  the  historic  dignity  of  his  palace, 
and  of  the  beauty  surrounding  his  noble  heritage,  as  well  as 
of  the  sacredness  of  his  office,  he  delighted  to  make  his  palace 
the  centre  of  spiritual  and  intellectual  life,  and  to  open  his  home 
and  gardens  for  the  enjoyment  and  recreation  of  all  his 
friends  and  poorer  neighbours,  with  a  refined  courtesy  and 
sympathetic  hospitality." 

The  palace,  now  seven  centuries  old,  still  stands  in  the 
green  island  below  the  Mendip  Hills,  where  the  Cathedral  and 
Vicars'  Close,  the  Lady  chapel,  and  chapter-house  form  its 
beautiful  setting.  The  bustle  of  commerce  has  not  reached 
Wells.  The  wide  greensward  spread  out  before  the  west 
front,  the  deep  pools  of  clear  water  reflecting  the  Cathedral, 
and,  above  all,  the  stately  buildings  themselves,  have  a 
benign  dignity  and  peace  which  tell  of  a  long  life  spent 
in  quietness. 


^nUjc 


Aaron,  the  Jew  of  Lincoln,  163 
Acton,  Sir  John  de,  295 
Acton  Burnell,  Salop,  290 
Addington,  Surrey,  4,  5 

——        William  de,  56 
Aigueblanche,    Peter   de,   Bishop   of 

Hereford,  260 — 264 
Alasco  the  Pole,  74 
Albini,  William  de,   160 
Alcock,  John,  Bishop  of  Ely,  35 
Alcune,  Bishop  of  Worcester,  15 
Alderne,  Captain,  282 
Aldingbourne,  Sussex,  18,  ig 
Alexander,  Bishop   of  Lincoln  160 — 

162 
Alnwick,  William,  Bishop  of  Lincoln, 
178— 181 

Bishop  of  Norwich, 

218 
Alselin,  Geoffrey,  157 
Amberley,  Sussex,  Castle  of,  17,  18, 

22 
Amcotts,  Mrs..  203 
Andrews,      Launcelot,      Bishop     of 

Winchester.  142 
Anne  Boleyn,  Queen  of  Henry  VIIL, 

70,  72 
of  Denmark,  Queen  of  James  L, 

313—315 
Anselm,   Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 

158 
Arthur,  son  of  Henry  VH.,  135 
Arundel,    Thomas,     Archbishop     of 

Canterbury,  55 


Arundel,  Earl  of.     See  Fitz-Alan. 

Ascham,  Roger,  106 

Ashbury,  Roger  of,  294 

Atlay,  James,  Bishop  of  Hereford, 
286 

Atterbury,  Francis,  Bishop  of 
Rochester,  10 

Atwater,  WiUiam,  Bishop  of  Lincoln, 
182 

Audley,  Thomas,  Lord,  70 

Aylmer,  John,  Bishop  of  London, 
105— III 

Ayremynn  or  Ayermin,  William  de, 
Bishop  of  Norwich,  56,  214 

Ayscough,  William,  Bishop  of  Salis- 
bury, 25 


B. 


Bagot,  Richard,  Bishop  of  Bath  and 

Wells,  324 
Baldock,  Ralph,  Bishop  of  London, 
92 

Robert  de.  Lord  Chancellor, 

270,  271 
Baldwin,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 

32 
Banbury,  Oxon.,  Castle  of,  160 
Bancroft,    Edmund     (for     Richard), 
Archbp.  of  Canterbury, 
78. 

John,   Bishop   of  Oxford, 

48 
Bardelby,  Robert  de,  5^ 
Barlow,  Thomas,  Bishop  of  Lincoln, 
201 


328 


INDEX 


Barlow,  William,  Bishop  of  Bath 
and  Wells,  310 
—312 

Bishop-elect       of 

Chichester,  75 
Barons,  William,  Bishop  of  London, 

95 
Barrington,      Shute,       Bishop       of 

Salisbury,  27 
Barton,  Hereford,  284 
Basset,     Fulk,    Bishop    of    London, 

92 
Bath,  Abbey,  289,  305,  313 

Chapter,  287,  290 

Bathurst,  Henry,  Bishop  of  Norwich, 

249—250 
Baumburgh,  Sir  Thomas  de,  92 
Baxter,  Richard,  197,  199 
Beadon,    Richard,    Bishop  of  Glou- 
cester, 42 

• Bishop    of   Bath 

and         Wells, 

324 
Beauchamp,     Richard,     Bishop     of 

Salisbury,  25,  28 
Beaudesert,  Warwick,  12 
Beaufort,        Henry,        Bishop       of 

Winchester,  134 
Becket,   Thomas   a,    Archbishop    of 
Canterbury, 

5 

Lord         Chan- 

cellor, 56 
Becon,  Dr.  John,  229 
Bee,  Captain,  194 — 196 
Bekynton,    Thomas    of,    Bishop    of 

Bath  and  Wells,  299—304 
Belvoir  Castle,  Leicester,  193 
Benson,     Edward,     Archbishop     of 
Canterbury,  205 
Martin,  Bishop   of  Glou- 
cester, 42 
Bentworth,    Richard   de,   Bishop  of 

London,  92 
Berkeley,    Gilbert,   Bishop   of    Bath 
and  Wells,  313 


Bernard,  Prior  of  Champagne,  260 — 
262 

Bernardi,  18,  23 

Berry,  Major-General  James,  197— 
199 

Bertwulf,  King  of  Mercia,  15 

Beveridge,  Dr.  William,  323 

Bexhill,  Sussex,  18 

Bigod,  Roger,  209 

Bilney,  "  Saint,"  224 

Bilson,  Thomas,  Bishop  of  Win- 
chester, 141 

Birch,  Colonel  John,  282 — 284 

Birmingham,  See,  3 

Bishopstone,  Sussex,  18 

Bishop  Stortford  (Storteford),  Herts., 
Castle  of,  93 

Bisse,  Philip,  Bishop  of  Hereford, 
284 

Blackwell,  Captain  John,  245 

Bloett,  Robert,  Bishop  of  Lincoln, 

158 

Blois,    Henry    of.    Bishop   of  Win- 
chester, 125 — 127 

William       of.       Bishop      of 

Lincoln,  167 

Blomefield,  Francis,  224 

Blomfield,  Charles,  Bishop  of  Lon- 
don, 121 

Blond,  Richard,  Bishop  of  Exeter, 
28 

Blythe,  John,  Bishop  of  Salisbury,  26 

Bokyngham,  John,  Bishop  of  Lincoln, 
176 

Bolock,    Hugh,  Bailiff  of  Hereford, 

275 
Bond,  Francis,  "  Gothic  Architecture 

in  England,"  257 
Bonner,  Edmund,  Bishop  of  London, 

98—103 
Booth,  Charles,  Bishop  of  Hereford, 
277 

William,  Archbishop  of  York, 

50 
Bosbury,  Hereford,  279 

Bottesham,  John,  177 


INDEX 


329 


Bowack,  John,  117 
Boxe,  Robert  atte,  295 
Bradshawes,  James,  229 
Bransford,    Wulston   de,    Bishop   of 

Worcester,  15 
Brantingham,  Thomas  de,  Bishop  of 

Exeter,  30 
Braybrooke,  Robert,  Bishop  of  Lon- 
don, 93 
Breaut6,  Fulk  de,  54 
Brereton,  Sir  William,  5 
Breton,  John  le,  Bishop  of  Hereford, 

264 
Brewer,  WilUam,  Bishop  of  Exeter, 

28 
Bristol  Abbey,  2 

Palace,  43 

See,  2,  42 

Brittany,  Duke  of.     Sie  Montfort. 

itton,  John,  218 
Broill,  Sussex,  iS 
Bromley,  Kent,  Palace,  10 

St.     Blaise's 


10 
Walter, 


Well, 
Bishop    of 


Bronescombe 
Exeter,  29 
Brooke,  Lord.     See  Greville. 
Brown,  Captain,  81 
Browne,   Edward,   Bishop   of    Win- 
chester, 153 

Thomas,  Bishop  of  Norwich, 

220 

Sir  Thomas,  231,  245 

Broxholme,  John,  193 

Bruce,  Giles  de.  Bishop  of  Hereford, 

260 
Bryan,  Sir  Francis,  225 
Bubwith,  Nicholas,   Bishop  of  Bath 

and  Wells,  297 
Bucer,  Martin,  74 
Buckden,  Hunts.,   175,  189,  190,  202, 

204 
Buckfastleigh,    Devon,    Abbey     of, 

29 
Buckingham,  Duke  of.     See  Villiers. 
Buckle,  Edmund,  287,  289,  300 


Buckner,  John,  Bishop  of  Chichester 

20 
Buckstead,  Essex,  97 
Burges.  Dr.  Cornelius,  318 
Burgh,  Hubert  de,  54 
Burghersh,  Bartholomew  de,  56 

- —         Henry,    Bishop   of   Lin- 
coln, 175 
Burghill,  John,  Bishop  of  Lichfield, 

12 
Burnell,  Robert,  Bishop  of  Bath  and 

Wells,  290 
Burnet,  Gilbert,  Bishop  of  Salisbury. 

28, 116 
Burthred,  King  of  Mercia,  14 
Bury  St.   Edmunds,  Suffolk,   Abbot 

of,  211 
Bush,  Paul,  Bishop  of  Bristol,  42 
Butler,   John,    Bishop   of  Hereford, 

285 
Byrde,  John,  Bishop  of  Chester,  102 


C.T.DWALLAR,  22 
Cakeham,  18 

Calthorpe,    Walter,    Bishop  of  Nor- 
wich, 212 
Cambrensis,  Giraldus,  162,  167 
Cambrigge,  Henry,  15 
Cantelupe.   Thomas    de,    Bishop    of 
Hereford,  264,  266 

Walter    de.    Bishop     of 

Worcester,  14,  264 

William  de,  Baron  Cante- 

lupe, 264 
Canterbury,  Christchurch  Priory,  52 

Palace,  3,  4 

Gate-house,  3 

Capes,  Canon, "  Charters  and  Records 

of  Hereford  Cathedral,"  255 
Capgrave,  Monk  of  Lynn,  215 
Carleton,   Guy,    Bishop    of    Bristol, 

82 


330 


INDEX 


Carleton,  Guy,  Bishop  of  Chichester, 
82 

Carpenter,  John,  Bishop  of  Worces- 
ter, 14 

Cary,  Valentine,  Bishop  of  Exeter,  32 

Castello,  Hadrian  de,  Bishop  of  Bath 
and  Wells,  304 

Catherine  of  Aragon,  Queen  of  Henry 
Vin.,  44. 

Howard,  Queen  of  Henry 

Vni.,  184—188 
Cavendish,  General  Charles,  198 
Cecil,  Sir  Robert,  112 

—  William,  103,  104,  226 

Chambers,  John,  Abbot  and  Bishop 

of  Peterboro',  44 
Chandler,  John,  Bishop  of  Salisbury, 

299 
Chapone,  Mrs.,  151 
Charles  I.,  79,  114,  143,  191,  280 

II.,  149,  246,  320 

v.,  Emperor,  4 

Charlton,  Thomas  de,  269 
Chaundler,  Thomas,  301 
Chelsea  Church,  70 

Chesney,     Robert     de,     Bishop     of 

Lincoln,  162 — 164 
Chester,  Earl  of.     See  Meschins. 
Chichele,     Henry,      Archbishop     of 

Canterbury,  58 
Chichester  Palace,  16—22 

See,  16 

Siege  of,  19 

Chigwell,  Joan  de,  278 

Hamo  de,  278 

Richard  de,  278 

Clare,  Richard  de.  Earl  of  Gloucester, 

173 
Clark,  John,  43 

Thomas,  43 

Clephan,  Mr.,  "Remembrance  of  the 

Rev.  C.  Berry,"  199 
Clerk,    John,    Bishop   of  Bath   and 

Wells,  306 
Clifford,  Roger  de,  264 
Colchester,  St.  Peter's  Church,  98 


Cold  Waltham,  Sussex,  18 
Compton,  Lord  Alwyne,  Bishop  of 
Ely,  35 

Henry,  Bishop  of  London, 

117 
Conway,  Edward,  Lord,  80 
Coole,  John,  98 

Cooper,    Thomas,    Bishop    of  Win- 
chester, 140 
Corbet,  Miles,  244,  245 

Richard,  Bishop  of  Norwich, 

236—238 
Corbett,   William  son  of  Sir  Roger, 

276 
Cornish,     Thomas,     Chancellor     of 

Wells,  305 
Cornwallis,    Frederick,    Bishop     of 
Lichfield,  14 

Sir  Thomas,  230 

Cotton,  Henry,  Bishop  of  Salisbury, 
27 

Mr.,  226 

Courtenay,  Peter,  Bishop  of  Exeter, 

31 

Bishop    of    Win- 

chester, 135 
Courtney,    William,   Archbishop    of 
Canterbury,  4 

Bishop  of  Lon- 

don, 94 
Coutance,    Walter     de.     Bishop     of 

Lincoln,  165 
Coventry,  Warwick,  12 
Coverdale,  Miles,  Bishop  of  Exeter, 

32.  75 
Cox,  Richard,  Bishop  of  Ely,  35,  36 
Crafford,  Major-General,  281 
Cranmer,    Thomas,    Archbishop    of 

Canterbury,  5,  6,  63 — 65,  69,  72 — 74 
Craswell  Priory,  Hereford,  262 
Crediton,  Devon,  28 
Creighton,  Robert,  Bishop  of   Bath 

and  Wells,  319 
Cromwell,  Oliver,  35,  83,  115,  192 

Thomas,  Dean   of   Wells, 

310 


INDEX 


331 


Cromwell,  Thomas,  Secretary.  70 
Croydon  Palace,  4,  5 

Vicar  of,  71 

Croyland,   Godfrey,  Abbot  of  Peter- 

boro',  47 
Cuddesdon,  Oxon,  Estate  in,  317 

Palace,  49 

Vicarage,  48 

Culpepper,  Thomas,  186 — 188 
Curll,  Walter,  Bishop  of  Winchester, 

143 

Bishop   of   Bath   and 

Wells,  316 


D. 


Dandy,  Edward,  83 

Daniel,  John,  271 

Darcy,  John,  56 

Daren th,  Kent,  53 

Davidson,    Randall,    Archbishop   of 

Canterbury,  154 
Day,    Dr.,    Rector    of    St.    Faith's, 

London,  191 
Deane,       Henry,       Archbishop      of 

Canterbury,  6 
Debiah,  James,  203 
Denham,  Sir  John,  145 
Derham,  Elias  de,  288 
Despenser,  Henry,  Bishop  of  Norwich, 
215—217 

Hugh,  270,  271 

Devereux,   Robert.   Second   Earl    of 
Essex,  78 

Third    Earl     of 

Essex,  240,  280 
Dobell,  Mr.,  203 
Dorchester,  See,  156 
Douglas.  John,  Bishop  of  Salisbury, 

28 
Dove.  Thomas,  Bishop  of  Peterboro', 

45 
Dowse,  Alderman  of  Lincoln,  196 
Drangewick,  18 


Drokenford,   John,   Bishop  of  Bath 

and  Wells,  295 
Dudley,   Robert,   Earl   of  Leicester, 

231 

Duncomb,  John,  '•  History  of  Here- 
fordshire," 285 

Dunn,  Walter,  son  of  Sir  Walter  de, 

268 
Duppa,  Brian,  Bishop  of  Winchester, 

148 
Durandus,    Bishop   of    Mende,   265, 

278 


Eaton  Bishop,  Hereford,  284 
Eccleshall,  Staffs.,  12,  14 
Edington  or  Edendone,  William  of. 
Bishop   of    Winchester, 

133 
Edington,  Wilts.,  Palace,  25 

Bonhorames.Friars 

of,  25 
Edward  I.,  3,  175,  290 

III.,  291 

IV.,  304 

Egerton,  Henry,  Bishop  of  Hereford, 

'285 
Eleanor,      Countess     of     Leicester, 
sister    of    Henry   III., 

173 

Queen  of  Edward  I.,  290 

Elham,  South,  Suffolk,  217 
Elizabeth,  Queen  of  England,  5,  75, 

78,  III,  112,  141,  230—233 
Ely  Castle,  34 

•  Cathedral,  35 

Palace,  34,  35 

Emas,   Alderman    of    Lincoln,    193, 

196 
Englefield,  Sir  Thomas,  277 
Erasmus,  g,  61,  97 
Erconwald,  Bishop  of  London,  91 
Erghum,  Ralph,  Bishop  of  Bath  and 

Wells,  296 
Erpingham,  Sir  Thomas,  216 


332 


INDEX 


Essex,  Earls  of.     See  Devereux. 
Ethelbald,  King  of  the  West  Saxons, 

124 
Ethelbert,  King  of  East  Anglia,  255 
Eustace  le  Moine,  54 
Evelyn,  John,  117 
Exeter  Cathedral,  30,  ^s 

Palace,  28,  30,  31,  33,  34 

Chapel  of,  28 

Prison  of,  30 

- —     See,  28 

Broadgate  in,  31 

High  Cross  in,  31 

Southernhay  in,  32 

F. 

Fairfax,  Sir  Thomas,  46 

Farmery,  "William,  202 

Farnham  Castle,    123,  124,   126,   129, 

135.  137.  139. 14I) 
142, 148,  149,  152, 

153 

Siege  of,  143—147, 

150 

Church,  135,  147 

"  Great  Park  "  in,  124,  137 

"  Little  Park"  in,  124,  137, 

151 

St.  George's  Inn  in,  136 

Townspeople,  131, 134,  143, 

145,  146,  152 

Vernon  House  in,  148 

Fastolf,  Sir  John,  222,  225 
Feel,  John,  Bishop  of  Oxford,  49 
Ferry,  Benjamin,  325 

Firth,  Professor,  199 

Fisher,  John,  Bishop  of  Rochester,  9, 

70,  72 
Fitton,  Thomas,  236 
Fitz-Alan,  Edmund,  Earl  of  Arundel, 

271 

Fitzjames,  Richard,  Bishop  of  Lon- 
don, 95 

Fletcher,  Richard,  Bishop  of  Bristol, 
43 


Fletcher,  Richard,  Bishop  of  London, 

III 
Foliot,  Gilbert,  Bishop  of  Hereford, 
258 

Hugh,   Bishop   of   Hereford, 

260,  273 

Robert,  Bishop  of  Hereford, 

258 
Ford,  Mrs.  Alice,  ^3 
Fox,  Charles  James,  249 
Foxe,  John,  Martyrologist,  226 

Richard,  Bishop  of   Bath  and 

Wells,  304 

Bishop  of  Winchester, 

135 
Freake,  Edmund,  Bishop  of  Norwich, 
227—233 

Mrs.,  229 

Frome,  John  de,  261 

Fulham  Church,  92,  93,  97,  log,  116 

Manor,  91,  93 

Palace,  91,  93,  95,  105,  113, 

114,  iig,  120,  121 

Chapel,  93,  102,  119, 

121 

Elms,  108 

Gardens,    117,    118 

121 
— —         Vines,  103 

Roads,  90 

Bishop's  Walk  in,  120 

■ Bonner's  Chair  in,  119 

Craven  Cottage  in,  96 

— -  Golden  Lion  Inn  in,  99 

Green  Lane  in,  115 

Monk's  Walk  in,  loi,  119 

Palemeade  in,  96 

Fuller,  Thomas,  236,  240 

William,   Bishop  of  Lincoln, 

199 — 201 

G. 

Gardiner,  Stephen,  Bishop  of  Win- 
chester, 137 — 139,  223 
Gascoigne,  Thomas,  219 


INDEX 


333 


Gasquet,  Dr.  F.  A.,  "  Last  Abbot  of 

Glastonbury,"  306 
Gates,  Sir  Henry,  311 

—   John, 311 

Gauden,  John,  Bishop  of  Exeter,  33 
Gaunter,  John  le.  Bailiff  of  Hereford, 

275 

Gay  wood,  Norfolk,  221 

Geoffrey,  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  164 

George  IH.,  150 

Gervays,  John,  Bishop  of  Winchester, 
132 

Giffard,  Godfrey,  Bishop  of  Wor- 
cester, 14 

Glanville,  Gilbert  de,  Bishop  of 
Rochester,  7 

Glastonbury,  287.  288,  308 

Abbey,  307 

Orewell  Park,  312 

Sharpham,  308 

Tor  Hill,  309 

Gloucester,  Abbey,  2,  39,  40,  42 

Earls  of.     See   Clare  and 

Robert. 

Robert  of,  263 

See,  2,  3,  39 

Gloys,  James,  221 
Godelee,  Dean  of  Wells,  295 
Godwin,  Francis,  Bishop  of  Hereford, 

279 

Canon  of  W^ells,  311 

Thomas,  Bishop  of  Bath  and 

Wells,  313 

Historian  of  Wells, 

313 

Goldwell,  James,  Bishop  of  Norwich, 
221 

Gooch,  Sir  Thomas,  Bishop  of  Nor- 
wich, 247 

Goodman,  Dean  of  Wells,  311 

Goodrich,   Thomas,  Bishop  of  Ely, 

35 
Goring,  George,  Earl  of  Norwich,  147, 

192 
Grandisson,  John,   Bishop  of  Exeter, 

29 


Gray,  Walter  de.  Archbishop  of  York, 

92 
Greville,  Sir,  Fulke,  113 

Robert,  Lord  Brooke,  13 

Grey,  Henry.  Earl  of  Stamford,  280 

Lady  Jane,  106 

Grindal,  Edmund,  Bishop  of  London, 
103 

Archbishop         of 

York,  104 

Archbishop        of 

Canterbury,  77, 
104 

Grocyn,  William,  61 

Grosseteste,  Robert,  Bishop  of  Lin- 
coln, 171 — 174 

Grozerd,  Nicholas  de,  276 

GuUipher,  Humfrey,  Bailiff  of  Here- 
ford, 275 

Gundulph,  Bishop  of  Rochester,  6 

Gunthorp,  Dean  of  Wells,  305 

Gurdon,  Adam  de,  132 

Gurney,  Joseph  John,  250 

Gwyn,  Eleanor  (Nell),  320 

Gynwell,  John,    Bishop   of   lincoln, 


H. 


Hacket,  John,   Bishop  of  Lichfield, 

13,  190,  191,  195 
Hackington,  Kent,  College  of,  52 
Haddington,      Viscount      of.       See 

Ramsay. 
Hadham,  Herts.,  93 
Hakney,  Middlesex,  92 
Halifax,  Samuel,  Bishop  of  Gloucester, 

42 
Hall,    Joseph,  Bishop    of    Norwich, 

240—245 
Hailing,  Kent,  8 
Hammersmith,  Middlesex,  90 
Hampden,  Renn  Dickson,  Bishop  of 

Hereford,  286 
Hampton  Bishop,  Hereford,  284 
Hankes,  Thomas,  102 


334 


INDEX 


Hardy.  Mathew,  83,  85 

Hare,  Francis,  Bishop  of  Chichester, 
20 

Harewell,  John,  Bishop  of  Shrews- 
bury, 293 

Harington  or  Harrington,  Sir  John, 
102,  313 

Harley,  Edward,  Earl  of  Oxford,  87 

Harsall,  Dean  of  Norwich,  239 

Harsnet,  Samuel,  Bishop  of  Norwich, 
234,  235 

Hartlebury,  Worcester,  Castle,  14,  15 

Chapel,  14 
Harvey,  Colonel  Edmund,  114,  115 
Hastings,  John,  Lord,  185 
Hatton,  Sir  Christopher,  36 
Havigal,  Mr.,  257 
Hay,  Nicholaa  de  la,  168 
Haytor,  Thomas,  Bishop  of  Norwich, 

248 
Haywood,  Staffordshire,  12 
Heath,  Judge,  19 
Heathfield,  Sussex,  18 
Heigham,  Norwich,  244 
Helles,  Kent,  Chapel  of,  53 
Henchman,   Humphrey,     Bishop    of 

London, 116 
Heneage,  Sir  Thomas,  230 
Henrietta  Maria,  Queen  of  Charles  L, 

114 
Henry  I.,  159,  160 

n.,  123,  163 

III.,  34,  55,  170,  262 

VI.,  31,  93,  220 

VII.,  182,  305 

VIII.,  65,  73,  84,  135—137 

Henshaw,  Thomas,  loi,  102 
Hereford,  Bishop's  Fee,  272 

Borough,  272,  275 

Cathedral,  263 

Friars  Minor,  266 

Palace,  255,  257,  259,  265, 

277,  283,  284,  286 

St.         Catherine's 

Chapel,  261 


Hereford,  Palace,  St.  Mary   Magda- 
lene's Chapel,  261,  285 

Prison,  275 

Sieges  of,  279 — 283 

Bister's  Gate  in,  283 

"  Cocedale"  in,  258 

St.    Ethelbert's    Fair,   273 

Pie  Lane  in,  273 

St.  Martin's  Church  in,  281 

St.  Owen's  Gate  in,  279,  281 

Herring,     Thomas,     Archbishop    of 

Canterbury,  5 
Hertford,  Earl  and  Marquis  of.      Scf 

Seymour. 
Hervey,  Lord  Arthur,  Bishop  of  Bath 

and  Wells,  325 
Hethe,  Hamode,  Bishop  of  Rochester, 

8 
Heton,  Martin,  Bishop  of  Ely,  35 
Hoadley,  Benjamin,  Bishop  of  Win- 
chester,  150 

Bishop  of  Here- 

ford, 285 
Hodges,  Thomas,  42 
Hodgkin,  John,  Bishop  of  Bedford, 

75 
Holbeach,    alias     Raundes,    Henry, 

Bishop  of  Lincoln,  188,  205 
Holme  Lacy,  Hereford,  262 
Honeywood,   Dean   of  Lincoln,  200, 

202 
Hooker,  Richard,  26 
Hooper,  George,  Bishop  of  Bath  and 

Wells,  323 
John,  Bishop  of  Gloucester, 

41 
Hopton,   John,  Bishop   of  Norwich, 
226 

Sir  Ralph,  317 

Home,  George,  Bishop  of  Norwich, 

248 
Robert,  Bishop  of  Winchester, 

140 
Horton,  Thomas,  Abbot  of  Gloucester, 

39 
Hotham,  Captain,  193 


INDEX 


335 


Hotham,  John,  Bishop  of  Ely,  36 
Howard,  Lord  Henry,  246 

Duke  of  Nor- 

folk, 247 

Thomas,      Duke     of 

Norfolk,  226 
Howarth,  Captain,  282 
Rowland,      Richard,      Bishop       of 

Peterboro',  44 
Howley,     William,     Archbishop    of 
Canterbury,  5, 
88 
Bishop  of  Lon- 
don, 121 
Hoxne,  Suffolk,  221,  224 
Hugh  of  Avalon,  Bishop  of  Lincoln, 

165—167 
Hulme,  Norfolk,  St.  Benet's  Abbey, 

224, 225 
Humphrey,     Humfrey,     Bishop     of 

Hereford,  274 
Hungerford,  Sir  Edward,  317 
Huntingdon,  Henry  of,  158,  159 
Hurd,  Richard,  Bishop  of  Worcester, 

15 
Hyde,    Alexander,  Bishop   of   Salis- 
bury, 28 


I, 


Ilchester,    Richard  of,   Bishop  of 

Winchester,  127 
Isabella,  Queen  of  Edward  H.,  270 

J- 

James  L,  78,  113 

James,  Roger,  309 

Jewel,  John,  Bishop  of  Salisbury,  26, 

27 
Joan,  Queen  of  Henry  IV.,  93 

Widow  of  the  Black  Prince,  57 

Jocelin,  Bishop  of  Bath,  287 — 289 
Joch,  Son  of  Out,  157 
John,  King  of  England,  167 
Johnson.  John,  go 


Jonson,  Richard,  97 

Juxon,     William,      Archbishop      of 
Canterbury,  5, 
85,  116 
• Bishop  of  Lon- 
don, 114 


K. 


Kaye,  John,  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  205 
Keene,  Edmund,  Bishop  of  Ely,  35 
Kele,  John,  Prebendary  of  St.  Mary, 

Crakepool,  177 
Kemp,  John,  Archbishop  of  York,  50 

Bishop  of  London,  94 

Ken,  Thomas,    Bishop   of  Bath  and 

Wells,  319—323 
Keppel,  Frederick,  Bishop  of  Exeter, 

34 
Kett,  Robert,  225 
Kidder,  Richard,  Bishop  of  Bath  and 

Wells,  323 
King,  Edward,    Bishop   of  Lincoln, 
207 

Henry,  Bishop  of  Chichester, 

19 

Oliver,   Bishop   of  Bath   and 

Wells,  304 

Robert,    Abbot     of     Oseney, 

Bishop  of  Oxford,  47 
Kirkeby,  John,  Bishop  of  Ely,  36 
Kirton,  Abbot  of  Peterboro',  47 
Kitchell,  Sir  Gilbert  de.  57 
Knight,  William,  Bishop  of  Bath  and 
Wells,  310 


Lacy,  Edmund,  Bishop  of  Exeter,  31 
Lake,   Arthur,  Bishop  of  Bath    and 

Wells,  315 
Lambeth  Church,  52,  53 

Manor,  52,  53,  56,  70 

Palace,  51,  53,  58,  60,  71, 

73.  76.  77-  80, 
83.  87,  88 


336 


INDEX 


Lambeth  Palace  Chapel,  53,  58,  74, 
79,81 

Domestic      regula- 

tions, 63 — 69 

Library,  78,  81,  87 

Lollard's  or  Water 

Tower,     51,    58, 
72.  80,  82,  84.  88 

Morton's  Gateway, 

84 

Bridge,  73,  77 

Dole.  67 

St.  Mary's  Church,  60 

Treaty  of,  54 

Lancherley,  Somerset,  288 

Laney,  Benjamin,  Bishop  of  Lincoln, 

199 
Lanfranc,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 

54 

Langon,  Peter,  de,  Prebend  of  Here- 
ford, 261 

Langton,  Stephen,  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  53 

Walter  of,  Bishop  of  Lich- 

field, II,  12 
Latimer,  Hugh,  Bishop  of  Worcester, 

71 
Laud,      William,      Archbishop      of 
Canterbury,  5, 
79—82 

Bishop   of  Bath 

and  Wells,  316 

Bishop  of  Lon- 

don, go, 114 
Law,   George,    Bishop  of  Bath  and 

Wells,  324 
Lawder,  Colonel  Sir  Richard,  280 
Lawrence,  Henry,  198 
Legge,  Colonel,  49 
Leicester,  Countess  of.    See  Eleanor. 

Earl  of.     See  Dudley. 

John  of,  173 

Leighton,  Dr.  Alexander,  82 
Leland,  John,  306 

Lennox,  Duke  of.     See  Stuart. 
Leslie,  John,  Bishop  of  Ross,  139 


Lexington,    Henry     de,    Bishop    of 

Lincoln,  174 
Leyton,  Dr.  Richard,  308 
Lichfield  Cathedral,  13 

Mint  Yard,  14 

Palace,  11, 12,  13,  14 

See,  II,  12 

Lincoln   Castle,    156,  160,    168,  171, 
192,  193 

Cathedral,    157,    161,    164, 

165,  171,  172 

Palace,  158,  163,  165,  170, 

175,  178  —  182, 
193,  196,  199, 
200,    203,   206 

Alnwick        Tower, 

178,  195,  197, 
203,    204,    206 

"  Fair  of,"  169 

Sieges    of,    160,    168,    192, 

194 — 196 

Bailgate  in,  156,  159 

■      Bargate  in,  169 

Chequer  Gate  in,  185,  192 

Eastgate  in,  160,  161,  192 

Newport  Arch  in,  155,  199 

North  Gate  in,  192 

Pottergate  in,  200 

St.  Andrew's  Church  in,  163 

St.      Martin   -  at  -  Palace, 

Church  of,  218 

St.  Martin's  Plain  in,  218, 225 

St.       Mary       Magdalene's 

Church   in,    157 

St.  Michael  on  the  Mount, 

Church  of,  159,  163 

Sencil  Dyke  in,  168 

"  Steep,  the,"  185 

Vicar's  Court  in,  174,  176 

192, 194,  195 

Winnowsty  Lane  in,  192 

Witham  Dyke  in,  168 

Lincoln,  Earl  of.     See  Romara,  de. 
Lind,  Jenny, 251 

Linsey,  Alderman  of  Norwich,  243 
Litester,  John  the,  215 


INDEX 


337 


Lloyd,  William,  Bishop  of  Norwich, 

247 
Llywdyn,  Gruffydd  ap,  256 
London,  Aldersgate  Street,  119 

"  Bell,  Le,"  Holborn,  36 

Chepe,  the,  29 

— —      Chichester  Rents,  24 

Ely  Place,  Holborn,  36 — 39 

Fish  Street,  260 

—      Old,  277,  278 

Lincoln's  Inn,  23 

"  LombardeshuU,"  278 

St.  Mary  Mounthaw,  271, 277 

St.  Mary  Somerset,  277 

St.  Paul's,  29 

Savoy,  15 

Soho  Square,  16 

Somerset  House,  13,  16 

Strand  the,  12,  15 

Temple  Bar,  29 

•     New,  15 

Whitefriars,  16 

Longchamp,  William,  128 
Longland,  John,  Bishop  of  Lincoln, 

182—188 
Lonsdale,  John,  Bishop  of  Lichfield, 

14 

Losinga,     Herbert    de.     Bishop     of 
Norwich,  209 — 211,  214 

Louis,  son  of  Philip  Augustus,  54,  129 

Lovelace,  Richard,  82 

Lowe,  John,  Bishop  of  Rochester,  g 
—    Thomas,  112 

Lucy,  Godfrey   de.  Bishop  of  Win- 
chester, 128 

Ludham,  Norfolk,  227,  228,  229 

Lyhert,  Walter,  Bishop  of  Norwich, 
215,  218,  219 — 221,  222 

Lysons,  Rev.  Daniel,  118 

Lytton,   Lord   Bulwer,   "  A   Strange 
Story,"  204,  207 

M. 

Maddock.s,  John,  109 
Maidstone,   Ralph,  Bishop  of  Here- 
ford, 260,  277 

E.E.P. 


Mainwaring,  Charles,  204,  207 

Malmesbury,  William  of,  161 

Manchester,  Earl  of.    See  Montague 

Mandeville,  Geoffrey  de,  92 

Manners-Sutton,  Charles,  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury,  5 

Manners-Sutton,  Charles,  Bishop 
of  Norwich,  249 

Mapenore,  Hugh  de,  Bishop  of  Here- 
ford, 260 

Margaret  of  Anjou,  Queen  of  Henry 
VL,  219,  220 

Marsh,  Adam,  174 

Marshall,  William,  Earl  of  Pembroke, 
54,  168 

Martin,  Thomas,  248 

Martyr,  Peter,  74 

Mary  Stuart,  Queen  of  Scots,  44 

Mary  Tudor,  Queen  of  England,  139, 
184 

Mathew,  Father,  251 

Maud,  Empress,  Daughter  of  Henry 
I.,  160 

Mayfield,  Sussex,  4 

Melun,  Robert  de,  Bishop  of  Here- 
ford, 258 

Memo,  Dionysius,  136 

Meschins,  Ranulf,  Earl  of  Chester, 
158,  160,  161 

Mews,  Peter,  Bishop  of  Winchester, 
130 

Bishop    of    Bath    and 

Wells,  319 

Michedeure,  Thomas  de,  271 

Milfred,  King  of  Mercia,  255 

Moleynes,  Adam  de.  Bishop  of 
Rochester,  17 

Monmouth,  Duke  of.     See  Scott. 

Montague,  Edward,  Earl  of  Man- 
chester, 193 

James,  Bishop   of    Bath 

and  Wells,  313 

Richard,  Bishop  of  Nor- 

wich, 240 
Montaigne    or    Monteigne,    George, 
Bishop  of  London,  114 

Z 


338 


INDEX 


Montaigne    or    Monteigne,    George, 

Bishop  of  Lincoln,  189 
Montfort,  John  de,  Duke  of  Brittany, 

56 

More,  Sir  Thomas,  10,  60,  70 — 72 

Morley,  George,  Bishop  of  Win- 
chester, 148 

Morton,  John,  Bishop  of  Ely,  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury,  60 

Moss,  Charles,  Bishop  of  Bath  and 
Wells,  324 

Moyle,  Sir  Thomas,  308 

Musgrave,  Thomas,  Bishop  of 
Hereford,  286 

N. 

Neile,    Richard,    Bishop    of     Win- 
chester, 10,  143 

Bishop  of  Durham, 

316 

Bishop  of  Lincoln, 

190 
Nelthorpe,  Dr.,  203 
Netterton,  William  de,  15 
Nettleham,  Lines.,  175,  189 
Nevill,  Hugh  de,  170 
Neville,  Ralph,  Bishop  of  Chichester, 

17.  23 

Newark,  Notts.,  Castle  of,  160 

Nix,  Richard,  Bishop  of  Norwich, 
223 

Norden,  John,  141 

Norfolk,  Duke  of.     See  Howard. 

North,  Brownlow,  Bishop  of  Win- 
chester, 151 

Northampton,  Marquis  of.     See  Parr. 

Northwode,  Hugh  de.  Bishop  of  Ely, 

Norwich    Cathedral,    210,  212,  218, 
222,  239 

Charity,  214 

Dominican  Friars,  223 

Palace,  210,  213,  217,  218, 

220,   222,  224,  225,  232, 
233—236,  244,  247,  252 


Norwich  Palace,  St.  Mary's   Chapel 
in,  212,  214,  246 

Priory,  219 

St.  George's  Guild,  221 — 

223 
Walloons  in,  226,  236 

Bishop  Alnwick's  Gateway, 

218,  225,  235 

Bishop  Salmon's  Gateway, 

214 

Bishop's  Bridge,  225 

Bishop's  Gate,  225,  246 

Cowholm,  209 

Erpingham  Gate,  251 

Green  Yard,  232,  234,  239 

Guildhall,  243 

"  Holmstrete,"  225 

Lollards'  Pit,  218,  224 

Mousehold  Hill,  231 

New  Hall  Yard,  240 

St.  Mary  -  in  -  the  -  Marsh, 

Church  of,  252 

St.    Michael's    Land  alias 

Tombland,  209 

St.  Stephen's  Gate,  231 

Thorpe,  209 

Wakering's  Cloister,  236 

■ Earl  of.     See  Goring. 

O. 

Offa,  King  of  the  East  Saxons,  92 

King  of  Mercia,  255 

Old  Sarum,  24 
Onslow,  Sir  Richard,  144 
Orlton,  Adam  de,  Bishop  of  Hereford, 
269 — 271,  273,  278 

Bishop      of     Win- 

chester, 133 
Osbalderton,     Richard,     Bishop    of 

London, 119 
Osbert,  Sheriff  of  Lincoln,  158 

son  of  Nigel,  55 

Oseney,  Oxon,  Abbey  of,  47 
Osgodeby,  Adam  de,  56 
Otford,  Kent,  Palace,  4,  5 


INDEX 


339 


Ottery  St.  Mary,  Devon,  College  of, 

30 
Oxford,  Earl  of.     See  Harley. 

Gloucester  College,  47 

See  of,  47 

Siege  of,  46 


Paget,  Sir  William,  13 
Parker,     Mathew,     Archbishop     of 
Canterbury,  63,  64,  66,  69, 

74—77.  85.  96 

Samuel,  116 

Parkhurst,  John,  Bishop  of  Norwich, 
226,  228 

Paris,  Matthew,  288,  289 

Parr,  William,  Marquis  of  North- 
ampton, 225 

Paston,  John,  221 

"Paston  Letters,  The,"'  220 

Patrick,  Simon,  Bishop  of  Ely,  244 

Paul,  William,  Bishop  of  Oxford,  49 

Paulinus.  157 

Pearce,  Dr.,  76 

Peckham,  John,  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury. 55 

Pelham,  John,  Bishop  of  Norwich,  252 

Pembroke,  Earl  of.     See  Marshall. 

Pepys,  Samuel,  200 

Pern,  Dr.,  Dean  of  Ely,  108 

Pert,  Captain,  196 

Peterboro'  Cathedral,  44,  45 

Palace,  44,  45,  46,  47 

See,  44 

Philippa,    Queen    to     Edward     III., 

291 
Philpotts,  Henry,  Bishop  of  Exeter, 

34 
Picot,  son  of  Colsuen,  158 
Piers,  William,  Bishop  of  Bath  and 

Wells,  316,  319 
Plumley,  Samuel,  80 
Plumptree,  Dean,  323 
Pole,  Cardinal  Reginald,  Archbishop 

of  Canterbury,  74 


Pole,  William  de  la,  Duke  of  Suffolk 

219 
Pollard,  308,  309 
Poore,  Richard,  Bishop  of  Salisbury, 

24 
Popham,  Sir  Francis,  317 
Porteus,  Beilby,  Bishop  of  London, 

119 
Pownall,  Thomas,  203 
Prescote,  Simon,  31 
Prestbury,  279 

Q. 

Quebec,  Bishop  of,  150 


R. 


Radulphos,  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury, 56 

Raleigh,  Wilham,  Bishop  of  Win- 
chester, 130,  261 

Ralph,  Bishop  of  Chichester,  16 

Ramsay,  Sir  John,  Viscount  of 
Haddington,  142 

Ramsbury,  Wilts,  26 

Ramsey  Abbey,  209 

Ranulf,  son  of  Erkomar  Canon  of 
Hereford,  258,  259 

Raundes,  Henry.     See  Holbeach. 

Ravis,  Bishop  of  Gloucester,  42 

Rawley,  Sheriff  of  Norwich,  242 

Ray,  Rev.  John,  117 

Reading,  Simon  de,  271 

Rede,  William,  Bishop  of  Chichester, 
17,  22 

Remigius,     Bishop    of    Dorchester, 

156 
Reppes,  William.     See  Rugge. 
Reynolds,  Edward,   Bishop   of   Nor- 
wich, 245 

Richard,    Bishop   of   Lin- 

coln, 203 

Walter,      Archbishop      of 

Canterbury,  56 


340 


INDEX 


Rich,  Robert,  Lord,  107 

Lady,  104 

Richard  II.,  12 

III.,  31 

Richard,  Bishop  of  Hereford,  25S 
Richard's  Castle,  Hereford.  279 
Ridley,  Nicholas,  Bishop  of  London, 

gg— loi 
Riseholme,  Lines.,  205,  207 
Robert,  Earl  of  Gloucester,  161 

son  of  William  Rufus,  158 

Robinson,  Crabb,  250 

-  John,  Bishop  of  London, 

118 
Roches,   Peter  des,  Bishop  of  Win- 
chester, 128,  130,  168 
Rochester  Palace,  6,  7,  8,  9,  10 

— —   Chapel,  8,  10 

St.  Andrew's  Priory,  6,  7, 

52.  53 
Rochford,  Jane,  Lady.  186—188 
Roe,  Sir  Thomas  and  Lady,  114 
Roger,  Bishop  of  Bath   and   Wells, 

2go 
Romara,  William  de,  Earl  of  Lincoln, 

160 
Roper,  William,  70 

Margaret,  71 

Rossiter,  Colonel,  193 

Rugge,  alias  Reppes,  William,  Bishop 

of  Norwich,  224,  235 
Rupert,  Prince,  280 
Russell,  Lord  John,  309 
Rygge,  Dr.  Robert,  58 

S. 

Sadington,  Robert  de.  56 
St.  Albans,  See  of,  3 
St.  Pol,  Sir  John  de,  56, 
Salisbury  Castle,  24 

— —       Cathedral,  25,  27 

Palace,  25,    6,  28 

See,  24 

Salmon,   John,   Bishop  of   Norwich, 
213,  217,  221,  222 


Sampson,       Richard,       Bishop       of 

Chichester,  24 
Sancroft,    William,    Archbishop     of 

Canterbury,  86 
Sandale,  John,  Bishop  of  Winchester, 

133 
Sanderson,       Robert,      Bishop       of 

Lincoln,  199 
Sandys,  Colonel,  15 

Edwin,Bishopof  London,  104 

Archbishop  of  York, 

104 

William,  Baron,  137 

Savaric,  Bishop  of  Bath  and  Glaston- 
bury, 287 

Savoy,   Boniface   of,   Archbishop   of 

Canterbury,  53 
Sawtre,  William,  216 
Scambler,      Edmund,      Bishop      of 

Norwich,  233 
Scarning,      Roger     of.     Bishop     of 

Norwich,  212 
Scory,  John,  Bishop  of  Hereford,  75, 

277,  279 
Scott,   James,  Duke   of   Monmouth, 
246,  319,  321 

Colonel  Thomas,  83 

Scrope,  Sir  Adrian,  200 
Scudamore,  Sir  Barnabas,  280 — 282 
SefErid,  Bishop  of  Chichester,  17 
Selsey,  Sussex,  16,  18 
Seymour,  Edward,  Earl  of  Hertford, 

13 

Duke  of  Somer- 

set, 16,  311 

Sir  Thomas,  65 

William,  Marquis  of  Hert- 

ford, 280,  317 

Sharp,  Dr.,  117 

Shaxton,  Nicholas,  Bishop  of  Salis- 
bury, 224 

Sheen  (Shene)  Surrey,  56,  135 

Sheepshanks,  John,  Bishop  of 
Norwich,  252 

Sheldon,  Gilbert,  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  86 


INDEX 


341 


Sheldon,  Gilbert,  Bishop  of  Lon- 
don, 116 

Shelwick,  Hereford.  284 

Sherburne,  Robert,  Bishop  of 
Chichester,  18,  21 

Sherlocke,  Thomas,  Bishop  of 
Salisbury,  28 

Bishop       of 

London,  119 

Sherwood  Forest,  Notts.,  170 
Shrewsbury,   Ralph    of,    Bishop    of 

Bath  and  Wells,  291 — 296 
Sigillo,  Robert  de.  Bishop  of  London, 

92 
Sleaford,  Lines.,  Castle  of,  160 
Smith,  William,  Bishop  of  Lincoln, 

204 
Somerset,  Duke  of.     See  Seymour. 
Soughton  Hall.  Flintshire,  324 
Southwark,     Surrey,     St.     Thomas' 
Hospital,  131 

See,  3 

Stews  at,  133 

Southwell,  Notts.,  Palace,  50 

See,  3 

Sparrow,       Anthony,      Bishop       of 

Norwich,  246,  247 
Sprat,  Thomas,  Bishop  of  Rochester, 

10 
Squire,  Doctor.  106 
Stafford,  John,  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury, 5 

Bishop   of  Bath   and 

Wells,  297,  298,  303 
Stamford,  Earl  of.     See  Grey,  Henry. 
Stanley,  Arthur,  Dean  of  Westminster. 
216,  249,  251 

Edward,  Bishop  of  Norwich, 

249,  251 
Stapledon,    Walter    de,    Bishop    of 

Exeter,  29 
Staverdale,  Somerset,  Canons  of,  293 
Stephen,  King  of  England,  160—162 
Stepney      (Stebenheke)      Middlesex, 

Church  of,  92 
Stigand,  Bishop  of  Chichester,  i6 


Still,  John,  Bishop  of  Bath  and  Wells, 

313 

Stillingfleet,      Edward,     Bishop     of 

Worcester,  15 
Stillington,   Robert,  Bishop  of  Bath 

and  Wells,  304 
Stokesley,  John,  Bishop  of  London, 

73,97 
Stoughton,  Mr.,  147 
Stow,  Lines.,  156,  165,  177 
Stratford,      John,      Archbishop      of 

Canterbury,  57 
Straw,  Jack,  57 
Stuart,  James,  Duke  of  Lennox,  79 

Duke  of  York,  246 

Sudbury,     Simon,    Archbishop      of 
Canterbury,  56, 

57 
Bishop    of   Lon- 
don, 94 

Suffield,  Walter  of.     See  Calthorpe. 

Suffolk,  Duke  of.     See  Pole,  de  la. 

Sugwas,  Hereford,  279,  284 

Sulyard,  William,  23 

Summer,  Charles,  Bishop  of  Win- 
chester, 152 

Sussex,  Augustus  Frederick,  Duke  of, 
250 

Sutton,   Oliver,   Bishop  of  Lincoln, 

174 

Swinfield,  Richard  de.  Bishop  of 
Hereford,  265—268,  278 

Swinfield,  Richard  de,  "  Roll  of 
Household  Expenses,"  (Camden 
Soc),  266—268,  277 

Swithun  (Saint),  Bishop  of  Win- 
chester, 124 


T. 


Tait,  Archibald,  Bishop  of  London, 

121 
Tattershall  Castle,  Lines.,  194 
Taylor,  Captain  Silas,  284 


342 


INDEX 


Temple  Bruer,  Lines.,  184 

Tenison,     Thomas,    Archbishop     of 
Canterbury,  118 

Terrick,  Richard,  Bishop  of  London, 
119 

Thetford,  Norfolk,  223 

Thirlby,  Thomas,  Bishop  of  Norwich, 
223 

Thomas,  John,  Bishop  of  Rochester, 
10 

Bishop  of  Winchester, 

150 

Thorne,  John,  309 

Thorold,  Anthony,  Bishop  of  Win- 
chester, 153 

Thynne,    Sir    Thomas,   Lord    Wey- 
mouth, 323 

Ticehurst,  Sussex,  18 

Tideman  de  Winchcomb,  Bishop  of 
Worcester.  15 

Tillotson,      John,      Archbishop      of 
Canterbury,  86 

Toftes,  Sheriff  of  Norwich,  243 

Tomline,     Sir     George     Pretyman, 
Bishop  of  Lincoln,  205 

Tooley,  Alderman  of  Norwich,  242 

Totington,  Alexander   of,  Bishop  of 
Norwich,  217 

Tours,  John  of,   Bishop  of  Bath,  287 

Towers,  John,  Bishop  of  Peterboro', 

45 
Trelawny,  Sir  Jonathan,  Bishop  of 

Winchester,  156 
Trellick,  John,  Bishop  of  Hereford, 

276 
Trevenant,  John,  Bishop  of  Hereford, 

273,  278 
Trimnell,   Charles,   Bishop   of   Nor- 
wich, 247 

Bishop  of   Win- 
chester, 150 
Trollope,       Edward,       Bishop       of 

Nottingham,  50 
Trottiscliffe      (Trottesclive),       Kent, 

Palace,  8 
Truro,  See  of,  3 


Tunstall,  Cuthbert,  Bishop  of  London, 

96 
Tupsley,  Hereford,  284 
Turbe,  William,  Bishop  of  Norwich, 

211,  216 
Turbeville,  Thomas,  263 
Turner,  William,  Dean  of  Wells,  gg 
Twickenham,  Middlesex.  200 
Twysden,  Sir  Roger,  82 
Tyler,  Wat,  57 
Tylney,  Catherine,  187 
Tyshthal,  Bishop  of  Hereford,  91 


V. 


Valence,  Aymer  de.  Bishop  of  Win- 
chester, 130 

Valey,  John,  98 

Vanbrugh,  Sir  John,  118 

Van  Ling,  27 

Vauxhall,  Surrey,  55 

Venables,      Canon,      "  Lincolnshire 
Notes  and  Queries,"  200 

Vere,  William  de.  Bishop  of  Here- 
ford, 259 

Veysey,  John,  Bishop  of  Exeter,  32 

Victoria,  Queen  of  England,  152 

Villiers,  George,  Duke  of  Bucking- 
ham, 246 
Lady  Mary,  79 


W. 


Waddington,    Edward,    Bishop    of 

Chichester,  20 
Wake,      William,      Archbishop      of 

Canterbury,  5 
Wakeman,        John,        Bishop        of 

Gloucester,    39 
Wakering,  John,  Bishop  of  Norwich, 

217 
Waller,    Sir   William,    19,   145 — 147, 

2  So 
Walsham,  North,  Norfolk,  215 


INDEX 


343 


Walsingham,  Sir  Francis,  230 
Walter.      Hubert,      Archbishop      of 

Canterbury,  53,  56 
Walton,  Isaac,  149 
Warbeck,  Parkin,  305 
Ward,  Seth,  Bishop  of  Exeter,  34 

Bishop  of  Salisbury,  27 

Warham,    William,    Archbishop    of 

Canterbury, 
6,  56,  61 — 63 
Bishop  of  Lon- 
don, 95 
Watson,  Sir  William,  iiS 
Waynflete,   William    of,    Bishop    of 

Winchester,  134 
Webb,  "Military  Memoir  of  Colonel 

John  Birch,"  2S2 
Wellesley,    Arthur,    Duke    of    Wel- 
lington, 152 
Wells,  Hugh  of,  Bishop  of  Lincoln, 

168,  170,  288 
Wells  Cathedral,  287, 288,  289,302,318 

Citizens,  294 

Manor,  311,  319 

Palace,  289,  290,  293,  296,  300, 

306,  311,  312,  318,  324 

Siege,  318 

Barnwell  House,  316 

Bishop's  Eye,  300 

Browne's  Gate,  314 

St.  Andrew's  Well,  293,  300 

St.  Calixtus'  Chapel,  303 

Vicars'  Close,  296,  300 

Wendover,  Richard  de,  162,  i68,  169 
Westbury,  Somerset,  311 
Westfahng,      Herbert,      Bishop      of 

Hereford,  279 

Westminster  Abbey,  2 

Weston,  Sir  Henry,  105 

Weymouth,  Lord.     See  Thynne. 

Whalley,  Major-General,  198 

Wharton,  Henry,  86,  87 

Wherwell,  Hants.,  Benedictine  Con- 
vent, 98 

Whitbourne  (Whitborn),  Hereford, 
279,  284 


White,Francis,Bishopof  Norwich,  234 
- — ■   William,  218 
Whitgift,      John,       Archbishop       of 

Canterbury,  78 
Whiting,  Richard,  Abbot  of  Glaston- 
bury, 306—309 
Wickham  Bishops  (Wickham),  Essex, 

93 
Wilberforce,      Samuel,     Bishop     of 
Winches- 
ter, 152 

Bishop     of 

Oxford, 

49 
Willes,    Edward,    Bishop    of    Bath 
and  Wells,  324 

John, loi 

William  II.  (Rufus),  158,  209,  211 

III.,  203 

called  Godknave,    Bailiff  of 

Hereford,  275 

Earl,  256 

Frederick,  Duke  of  Glouces- 
ter, 249 

Saint,  of  Norwich,  212,  222 

son    of    Haco,    Sheriff   of 

Lincoln,  160 
Williams,  John,   Bishop  of   Lincoln, 
189 — 191 

— —       J.  G.,  "  Lincolnshire  Notes 
and  Queries,"  193,  195 
Willis,  Browne,  202,  285 
Wilson,  Dr.,  71 
Wilton,  Wilts.,  25 
Winchcomb,  Tideman  de.     SeeTide- 

man 
Winchelsea,    Robert,    Archbishop  of 

Canterburj'.  6.  67 
Winchester,  Wolvesey  I'alace  in,  125 
Windsor,  Thomas,  15 
Winnicliffe,     Thomas,      Bishop      of 

Lincoln,  191 
Winterbourne,  43 
Wither,  George,  143 — 145 
Wittering,  West,  Sussex,  18 
Wodebourne,  Sir  John  de,  57 


344 


INDEX 


Wolsey.  Thomas,  Cardinal,  Bishop  of 
Bath  and 
Wells,      304 

_ —       Bishop  of 

Lincoln,  182 

Bishop  of 

Winchester, 
136 
Wood,  Thomas,  Bishop  of  Lichfield, 

14 
Woodford,  James,  Bishop  of  Ely,  35 
Woodlock,   Henry,  Bishop   of  Win- 
chester, 133 
Wookey,  Somerset,  289 
Worcester,  See,  14 
Wordsworth,  Christopher,  Bishop  of 
Lincoln,  205 

William,  122 

Wren,  Christopher,  118 
Matthew,  Bishop  of  Ely,  37, 142 


Wren,  Matthew,  Bishop  of  Norwich, 

237>  238 
Wright,  Robert,  107 
Wulfere,  King  of  Mercia,  144 
Wych,  Richard,  Bishop  of  Chichester 

23 
Wycliffe,  John,  57,  58,  94 
Wykeham,    William   of,    Bishop   of 

Winchester,  56,  58,  134 
Wynne,  John,  Bishop  of  Bath   and 

Wells,  324 


York,  Duke  of.    See  Stuart. 


ZoucHE,  William,  Lord  de  la,  270 


CORRIGENDUM. 
Page  78,  line  3  from  bottom.     For  "  Edmund,"  read  "  Richard.' 


BRADBURV,    AGMEW     &    CO.    r,U.      PRINTERS     LONDON   AND   TONBRIDGE. 


THE  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 

This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below 


REC'D  LO-Uit 


Form  L-J> 
25m-10,' 44(2491) 


m^^ 


A  A       000  285  063 


/ 


t 


PLEA«C  DO   NOT    REMOVE 
THIS   BOOK  CARDt 


-^^HIBRAftYQ 


University  Research  Library 


